In a setback for the creative industry this week, US Federal Judge Alsup, ruled that Anthropic use of millions of copyrighted books by authors without permission to train Anthropic’s Claude LLMs is legal – under the doctrine of fair use under the US Copyright Act. Claude was first released publicly in March 2023.
In 2024, the plaintiffs including Andrea Bartz, Charles Graeber and Kirk Wallace Johnson brought an action against Anthropic. The plaintiffs are authors of books including The Breakthrough: Immunotherapy and the Race to Cure Cancer; and To Be A Friend Fatal: The Fight to Save the Iraqis America Left Behind.
This ruling in favour of generative AI companies is one of the first in the context of hashtag#GenerativeAI. This win for the generative AI companies could mark a turning point in the debate on the use of copyrighted content to advance generative AI hashtag#LLMs in the US.
However, the judge also ruled that Anthropic had no entitlement to use pirated copies. The trial on the pirated copies used to create Anthropic’s central library will be in the later part of the year.
“That Anthropic later bought a copy of a book it earlier stole off the internet will not absolve it of liability for the theft but it may affect the extent of statutory damages.”
The decision establishes an inflexion point, as the world and the AI industry struggle through the legality over the use of copyrighted material for training hashtag#LLMs.
Joseph Gordon-Levitt, actor and founder of the collaborative platform HitRecord, shared his insights on how artificial intelligence is transforming the creator industry and the creative landscape.
As one of Hollywood’s most vocal critics of AI, he articulated the impacts and concerns of hashtag#LLMs to Hollywood and the creative industries at the Fireside chat in hashtag#igf2025.
He reflects on the opportunities and challenges AI presents for collaboration, authorship, and the role of human creativity in storytelling. The conversation touches on ethical concerns, the importance of transparency in AI-generated content, and how artists can adapt and thrive in an evolving digital ecosystem.
In response to the question from the moderator, as to what steps that the international community should take to ensure that creatives are protected, recognised and empowered in the age of AI: “There should be a law …the individual self belongs to you…When humans produce data…If someone makes money out of that data…We need to compensate people for the value that they create.”
Watch the firechat here: https://lnkd.in/gvK-x78Y
This post was first published on LinkedIn