Anthropic will pay $1.5 billion to settle a lawsuit from authors, who accused the Amazon-backed company of illegally downloading and copying their books to teach its AI system, in among the first deals reached by creators over novel legal issues raised by the technology.
The settlement was reached on Aug. 26. Lawyers for authors on Friday notified the court on the terms of the deal.
Authors who opt into the agreement will be eligible to share in the $1.5 billion settlement fund, plus additional payments of $3,000 per book allegedly used by Anthropic for training. They can also decline to participate in the deal and individually pursue copyright infringement claims.
In a statement, Authors Guild CEO Mary Rasenberger said the deal “is a vital step in acknowledging that AI companies cannot simply steal authors’ creative work to build their AI just because they need books.” She added, “We expect that the settlement will lead to more licensing that gives author both compensation and control over the use of their work by AI companies, as should be the case in a functioning free market society.”
The settlement was reached shortly after the court issued a ruling largely siding with Anthropic on the issue of fair use, which allows creators to build upon copyrighted works without a license. AI companies have scraped creative works across the internet without consent of compensation to creators under their belief that they’re on solid legal ground because of the legal doctrine.
Authors don’t have the right to exclude the company from using their works to train its technology as long as they purchased the books, according to the June ruling. Like any reader who wants to be a writer, the AI tool learns and create entirely new works, the court reasoned.
The technology is “among the most transformative many of us will see in our lifetimes,” wrote U.S. District Judge William Alsup.
Before the settlement, Anthropic was set to face a trial over illegally downloading seven million books to create a library that was used for training. That it later purchased copies of those books it stole off the internet earlier to cover its tracks doesn’t absolve it of liability, Alsup said. The company faced massive damages stemming from the decision, with damages reaching up to $150,000 per infringed work.
Anthropic will pay the settlement in four installments, the first of which is due within five days of preliminary approval of the deal. The last must be paid two years after.
Lawyers representing the authors, led by firm Susman Godfrey, will seek no more than 25 percent of the settlement in fees, according to the court filing.
“We hope this is just the first of many AI companies to be held accountable for their theft of creative work, and that it helps set a precedent that consent and compensation for works used in AI training are nonnegotiable,” Human Artistry Campaign said in a statement.
Authors who believe their work may have been stolen can learn more about how to file a claim for compensation here.
