Anthropic to pay $1.5 billion to authors in landmark AI settlement

Anthropic, an AI company, has reached a settlement agreement to pay "at least" $1.5 billion, plus interest, to authors whose copyrighted works were allegedly used to train Anthropic's AI models. The settlement, which is subject to court approval, is believed to be the largest publicly reported recovery in the history of US copyright litigation. The settlement will provide smaller payouts of approximately $3,000 per book or work, with the final amount potentially higher depending on the number of claims submitted. As part of the settlement, Anthropic must also destroy the original files it downloaded and any copies. The landmark decision is part of a year-long saga involving allegations that Anthropic had "built a multibillion-dollar business by stealing hundreds of thousands of copyrighted books." The settlement is noteworthy in the context of mounting lawsuits against AI companies over copyright infringement, as well as the increasing number of partnerships between AI companies and companies and media outlets willing to provide data to train AI systems.