Tech giant Apple has been sued for allegedly using authors’ works without permission to train its AI models. Authors Grady Hendrix and Jennifer Roberson sued the company, claiming their copyrighted books were used by Apple’s AI systems.

Apple Faces AI Lawsuit

The plaintiffs allege that Apple used a dataset of copyrighted books, including their own, to train its AI model. These books were allegedly collected from “shadow libraries” created without the authors’ permission and referred to as “pirates.”

This isn’t the first time AI companies have faced legal action for copyright infringement. Anthropic previously faced a similar lawsuit. Anthropic agreed to pay more than $1.5 billion to settle the copyright lawsuit filed by the authors.

The company announced that it would pay authors more than $3,000 for each work or book used without permission. This settlement is the largest such settlement ever reached in the United States. Whether this lawsuit against Apple will reach a similar level will become clear in the coming days.

Unlike other AI companies that have faced similar lawsuits and resolved these issues with multi-million dollar settlements, Apple’s stance on copyright is a matter of considerable interest. The company has long been conducting secret work in the field of AI, and this lawsuit has brought Apple’s information-gathering methods to light for the first time.

The lawsuit reignites ongoing debates between AI developers and copyright holders. Experts say the outcome of this case could shape the future legal framework surrounding the use of copyrighted works by AI models.