Synopsis
Music company BMG Rights Management has sued AI startup Anthropic. The lawsuit claims Anthropic used copyrighted song lyrics to train its AI chatbots. This is one of many lawsuits against tech companies for using creative works. Anthropic previously settled a similar case with authors. The music industry is taking legal action over AI training data.The lawsuit is the latest among dozens of high-stakes cases brought by authors, news outlets, and other copyright owners against tech companies for using their work in training large language models behind their chatbots. BMG rival Universal Music Group and other music publishers filed a related lawsuit against Anthropic in 2023, which is still ongoing. Anthropic settled another AI training lawsuit brought by a group of authors for $1.5 billion last year.
Spokespeople for the companies did not immediately respond to requests for comment on Wednesday.
AI companies have argued that they make fair use of copyrighted material by transforming it into something new.
BMG, owned by German media group Bertelsmann, cited 493 examples of copyrights that Anthropic allegedly infringed. Statutory damages for copyright infringement under U.S. law can range from hundreds of dollars up to $150,000 per work if the court finds the infringement was willful.
