Copyright vs. AI: A Landmark $1.5 Billion Settlement

Authors Andrea Bartz, Charles Graeber, and Kirk Wallace Johnson have accused Anthropic of illegally copying their books to train Claude, the company's AI chatbot, which competes with ChatemGPT.

Authors to Receive Record-Breaking Compensation from Anthropic

Anthropic will pay at least $1.5 billion to settle a class-action lawsuit filed in the United States over the unlawful use of books to train artificial intelligence models, according to documents released Friday.

During the trial, Anthropic argued that its actions fell within the scope of "fair use" under U.S. copyright law.

Under the settlement, Anthropic will destroy the original files and any copies thereof, but will retain the rights to the books it legally acquired and scanned.

Justin Nilson, a lawyer representing the injured party, noted that this is the largest copyright settlement and the first in the era of artificial intelligence.

According to court documents, the settlement covers approximately 500,000 books. For each book, Anthropic must pay approximately $3,000 in damages—four times the minimum amount allowed under U.S. copyright law.

“This settlement sends a clear message to the AI ​​industry that piracy… has serious consequences,” Mary Rasenberger, CEO of the Authors Guild, said in a statement.

Despite the defeat, Anthropic is not slowing down in the race against other giants in the field of artificial intelligence.

Anthropic competes with generative AI solutions from Google, OpenAI, Meta, and Microsoft in a race that is expected to attract hundreds of billions of dollars in investment over the next few years.

Anthropic has $183 billion in capital and last week raised $13 billion in funding.