Anthropic faced a major copyright lawsuit from...

Editor's note: ...authors after it bulk-purchased millions of physical books, stripped their bindings by cutting them off with a hydraulic press, scanned the pages, and discarded the originals to build training data for its Claude AI models, while also downloading millions more from pirate sites. A federal judge later ruled the destructive scanning of lawfully bought books was fair use, but found the piracy unlawful, leading Anthropic to settle the piracy claims for $1.5 billion. The episode revealed the company’s willingness to physically destroy books at industrial scale (modern day book burning) in pursuit of AI advantage, raising serious concerns about its approach to cultural materials and intellectual property. Although this is older news about Anthropic, the point is those who are concerned should head out right now and begin collecting every old book they can find, carefully preserving them so these physical copies remain safe from the kind of industrial-scale scanning and destruction that companies have already carried out. Anthropic is another example of corporate irrational power. The sense of entitlement on display feels rooted in the same monopolistic Rockefeller mindset that has shown up in other powerful corporations, prioritizing control and profit in a way that often seems misanthropic and indifferent to broader human costs. That kind of mindset is driven by pride, outright greed and unchecked ambition unhinged from all moral and ethical constraints. Whether framed in psychological or cultural terms, it is inverting priorities away from ordinary human welfare.
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Anthropic to pay authors $1.5 billion to settle lawsuit over pirated books used to train AI chatbots

By Matt O'Brien | September 7, 2025

NEW YORK (AP) — Artificial intelligence company Anthropic has agreed to pay $1.5 billion to settle a class-action lawsuit by book authors who say the company took pirated copies of their works to train its chatbot.

The landmark settlement, if approved by a judge as soon as Monday, could mark a turning point in legal battles between AI companies and the writers, visual artists and other creative professionals who accuse them of copyright infringement.

The company has agreed to pay authors or publishers about $3,000 for each of an estimated 500,000 books covered by the settlement.

"As best as we can tell, it's the largest copyright recovery ever," said Justin Nelson, a lawyer for the authors. "It is the first of its kind in the AI era."

A trio of authors — thriller novelist Andrea Bartz and nonfiction writers Charles Graeber and Kirk Wallace Johnson — sued last year and now represent a broader group of writers and publishers whose books Anthropic downloaded to train its chatbot Claude.

A federal judge dealt the case a mixed ruling in June, finding that training AI chatbots on copyrighted books wasn’t illegal but that Anthropic wrongfully acquired millions of books through pirate websites.

If Anthropic had not settled, experts say losing the case after a scheduled December trial could have cost the San Francisco-based company even more money.

"We were looking at a strong possibility of multiple billions of dollars, enough to potentially cripple or even put Anthropic out of business," said Thomas Long, a legal analyst for Wolters Kluwer.

U.S. District Judge William Alsup of San Francisco has scheduled a Monday hearing to review the settlement terms.

Anthropic said in a statement Friday that the settlement, if approved, "will resolve the plaintiffs' remaining legacy claims."

"We remain committed to developing safe AI systems that help people and organizations extend their capabilities, advance scientific discovery, and solve complex problems," said Aparna Sridhar, the company's deputy general counsel.

As part of the settlement, the company has also agreed to destroy the original book files it downloaded.

Please go to AP to continue reading.

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Anthropic wins a major fair use victory for AI — but it's still in trouble for stealing books