AI Giants Face Legal Battle Over Copyrighted Book Use

Investigative reporter John Carreyrou, known for unveiling Theranos fraud, has filed a lawsuit against major AI companies, including xAI and Google, for allegedly using copyrighted books without permission in AI training. Filed in California, this case highlights ongoing legal disputes over intellectual property in AI systems.

An investigative reporter famous for uncovering fraud at Theranos has launched a lawsuit against several tech giants for allegedly using copyrighted materials without consent. Filed on Monday, the suit includes defendants such as Elon Musk's xAI, Anthropic, Google, OpenAI, Meta Platforms, and Perplexity.

The lawsuit, submitted in California's federal court, accuses these companies of pirating books to train large language models (LLMs) that drive their AI-powered chatbots. John Carreyrou, a New York Times reporter and author of 'Bad Blood,' has teamed up with five other writers for the complaint. Notably, this is the first instance of xAI being named in such a lawsuit.

The writers' approach deviates from other copyright cases as they are not attempting to form a class action, a method they critique for disproportionately favoring defendants. This legal move follows Anthropic's settlement of $1.5 billion in a class-action copyright dispute, demonstrating the high stakes involved.

(With inputs from agencies.)