Judge Denies Anthropic’s $1.5 Billion AI Copyright Settlement: What It Means for the Future of AI Law

Judge William Alsup has turned down a massive $1.5 billion settlement between Anthropic and a group of authors in a piracy lawsuit. The federal judge expressed concern that the deal might not adequately protect the authors’ interests. He feels misled and described the settlement as “nowhere close to complete.”

The lawsuit involves around 500,000 authors who are accusing Anthropic of using pirated versions of their works to train its language models. Each author is slated to receive about $3,000 for their work. One lawyer representing the authors highlighted that this proposed settlement is significantly larger than any previous copyright recovery.

However, Alsup is wary of how class-action settlements often fail to benefit the actual authors. He noted that once the financial part is settled, many lawyers lose interest and class members can end up receiving less than they deserve. He stressed the need for clear communication with the authors and for creating a claims process that allows them to choose whether to participate.

Alsup has set deadlines for the attorneys to present a detailed list of the works involved and to develop a claims form that is easy to understand. The court must approve these documents by October 10 for the settlement to move forward.

In recent years, there has been growing scrutiny of how digital content is used and compensated. According to a recent survey by the Authors Guild, over 70% of authors feel undervalued and believe that copyright protections need strengthening. This case highlights the ongoing struggle between creators and tech companies in the digital age.

For more on this evolving situation, see the full report by Bloomberg Law.

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