Xin Lang Cai Jing·2025-12-23 02:07Core Viewpoint - A group of writers led by Pulitzer Prize winner John Carreyrou has filed a class-action lawsuit against six AI companies, including OpenAI, Google, Meta, Anthropic, xAI, and Perplexity AI, accusing them of "willful infringement" by training models on pirated books [1][6]. Group 1: Allegations and Legal Context - The lawsuit claims that the six companies downloaded millions of pirated books from illegal shadow libraries like LibGen and Z-Library, using these works for training large language models and product optimization, creating an illegal closed loop of "pirated acquisition - model training - commercial monetization" [1][6]. - The plaintiffs argue that the intellectual contributions of writers support an AI ecosystem valued at tens of billions of dollars, yet they have received no compensation [1][6]. - If the jury finds the infringement to be willful, each infringing work could result in damages of up to $150,000 [2][7]. Group 2: Previous Legal Issues and Industry Impact - OpenAI has faced at least 14 copyright lawsuits, making it a frequent target in the industry [2][7]. - The New York Times previously sued Microsoft and OpenAI for using millions of its articles to train AI models, claiming billions in damages and demanding the destruction of any AI models using its copyrighted material [2][7]. - Other companies like Google and Meta have also received cease-and-desist notices for unauthorized use of copyrighted works in AI development [9]. - Anthropic was notably ordered to pay $1.5 billion in a settlement for using pirated books to train its Claude model, with a court ruling stating that "pirated data is not subject to fair use" [9]. - The Northern District of California has accepted 25 AI copyright cases, representing over half of similar cases nationwide, and the outcomes may set important precedents for the legality of AI training data [9].