Around 500,000 writers are set to receive at least $3,000 each as part of a record-breaking $1.5 billion settlement in a class action lawsuit against AI startup Anthropic. The payout marks the largest in U.S. copyright history, though critics say it represents a win for tech companies, not authors.
The case, Bartz v. Anthropic, accused the company behind the Claude chatbot of illegally downloading and using millions of books from “shadow libraries” to train its large language models. While dozens of similar lawsuits have been filed against OpenAI, Meta, Google, and others, this settlement is the first of its scale.
Federal judge William Alsup ruled earlier this year that training AI systems on copyrighted material falls under fair use, comparing the process to a writer learning from other works. However, he found Anthropic’s unauthorized downloads unlawful, which pushed the case toward trial, until the settlement ended it.
“Today’s settlement, if approved, will resolve the plaintiffs’ remaining legacy claims,” said Aparna Sridhar, Anthropic’s deputy general counsel, adding that the company remains committed to building “safe AI systems” that extend human capabilities.
Anthropic recently raised $13 billion, making the $1.5 billion payout a financial setback but not an existential threat. Meanwhile, the decision sets a precedent for ongoing cases against other AI companies, though future rulings could diverge given the high stakes for both the tech and creative industries.
