Anthropic Seeks Dismissal of Copyright Lawsuit Over AI Training

Anthropic has asked a California federal court to dismiss a lawsuit filed by a group of authors who allege that the company violated their copyrights by using their works to train its AI model, Claude. Reuters reports that Anthropic argues its use of the authors' books constitutes fair use, as it transforms the original works into something new.

The lawsuit, filed by writers Andrea Bartz, Charles Graeber, and Kirk Wallace Johnson, claims that Anthropic used pirated versions of their works to train Claude. Anthropic contends that its training process is protected under the copyright doctrine of fair use, which allows for the unauthorized use of copyrighted material under specific circumstances. The company asserts that its AI training is a "transformative" act that U.S. copyright law encourages to promote human creativity.

The case, Bartz v. Anthropic PBC, is being heard in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California. Anthropic's legal team argues that the AI model's purpose is fundamentally different from allowing users to read the plaintiffs' books, thus supporting their fair use claim.