Technology giant Apple has been sued by authors who accuse the company of illegally using their copyrighted books to train its artificial intelligence systems. The proposed class action, filed in federal court in Northern California on Friday, alleges that Apple copied protected works without seeking consent, providing credit, or offering compensation. The plaintiffs, authors Grady Hendrix and Jennifer Roberson, stated that “Apple has not attempted to pay these authors for their contributions to this potentially lucrative venture.”
This lawsuit is the latest in an expanding legal battle over intellectual property in the age of AI, joining a wave of similar cases from authors, news outlets, and other creators against major tech firms. The suit specifically alleges that Apple used a known body of pirated books, which included works by Hendrix and Roberson, to train its “OpenELM” large language models. Companies like Meta, Microsoft, and OpenAI have also faced claims over the alleged misuse of copyrighted material to develop their AI technologies.
The legal landscape surrounding these disputes is beginning to shift, as evidenced by a significant development on the same day. AI startup Anthropic disclosed in a court filing that it had agreed to pay $1.5 billion to settle a class action from a group of authors—a deal plaintiffs’ lawyers called the largest publicly reported copyright recovery in history, though Anthropic did not admit liability.
Apple and lawyers for the plaintiffs did not immediately respond to requests for comment. The case highlights the growing tension between the rapid advancement of artificial intelligence and the legal protections for creative works, setting the stage for a potentially protracted legal fight that could define the boundaries of copyright law in the digital era.
