John Carreyrou and other authors bring new lawsuit against six major AI companies

A coalition of authors, spearheaded by John Carreyrou, known for his exposé on Theranos and the bestselling book "Bad Blood," has initiated legal action against six prominent AI firms: Anthropic, Google, OpenAI, Meta, xAI, and Perplexity. The lawsuit centers on allegations that these companies trained their AI models using unauthorized copies of the authors' literary works. This legal challenge echoes a previous class action lawsuit that targeted Anthropic for similar copyright violations. In that instance, a judge ruled on the legality of AI companies using pirated content for model training, noting that while the training itself could be permissible, the act of piracy remains illegal. Despite a settlement of $1.5 billion from Anthropic, which allows eligible authors to claim approximately $3,000, many writers expressed dissatisfaction with the outcome. They argue that it fails to hold AI companies accountable for the pervasive use of their stolen works, which contribute to substantial profits for these organizations. The current lawsuit articulates a strong discontent with how the previous settlement appeared to favor the AI companies rather than the creators. The plaintiffs contend that the resolution allows large language model (LLM) firms to dismiss thousands of significant claims at minimal costs, thereby undermining the true value of their infringement. This ongoing battle highlights the mounting tensions between creative professionals and the rapidly evolving AI industry.