Publishers Sue Google Over Use of Books in Gemini AI Training

A group of major publishers and authors have filed a lawsuit against Google Antigravity, alleging that the company's Gemini AI models were trained using copyrighted books without authorization or payment, reports The Guardian.

The complaint, brought by Cengage Group, Elsevier, Hachette Book Group, and author Scott Turow, claims that Google copied millions of books supplied for limited services such as Google Books, Google Play Books, and Google Scholar. These services allowed Google to display snippets or sell ebooks but did not grant rights to use the works for training commercial AI models.

According to the filing, internal discussions at Google warned that such use could result in fines ranging from $10 billion to $100 billion. The lawsuit seeks statutory damages, a permanent injunction preventing Google from continuing the alleged infringement, and an order to destroy any copies of the works used in AI training.

The publishers argue that Google's actions have harmed authors and the publishing industry. The case adds to ongoing litigation between AI companies and copyright holders over the use of protected works for model training.