Screw the money — Anthropic’s $1.5B copyright settlement sucks for writers

In a groundbreaking development, approximately 500,000 writers are set to receive a minimum payout of $3,000 each, following a monumental $1.5 billion settlement in a class action lawsuit against Anthropic. This settlement marks a significant moment in U.S. copyright law, but many authors view it as a troubling sign of the growing power of technology companies. As tech giants compete to gather vast amounts of written content for training their large language models (LLMs), which underpin innovative AI chat applications like ChatGPT and Claude, the implications for the creative sector become increasingly dire. These companies are on a quest for data, and after scouring nearly all available online information, they are now seeking more material to enhance their AI capabilities. The lawsuit, Bartz v. Anthropic, is just one of numerous legal challenges faced by companies like Meta, Google, OpenAI, and Midjourney regarding the legality of using copyrighted works for AI training. However, the settlement does not compensate writers for the unauthorized use of their material; it merely serves as a costly penalty for Anthropic, which was found to have illegally downloaded millions of books from unlicensed sources. In June, a federal judge ruled in favor of Anthropic, asserting that training AI on copyrighted content can be considered a "transformative" use, thus falling under the protection of the fair use doctrine—a legal framework that has remained unchanged since 1976. The judge emphasized that Anthropic's AI systems are designed to create new works rather than merely replicate existing ones. While the settlement aims to resolve the plaintiffs' claims, it raises questions about the implications for future cases concerning AI and copyright. As more lawsuits emerge, Bartz v. Anthropic could serve as a reference point for judges, who may arrive at various interpretations of the law. Anthropic has expressed its commitment to developing safe AI technologies that enhance human and organizational capabilities, but the challenges of balancing innovation with copyright protections remain a contentious issue.