A massive copyright settlement involving artificial intelligence and your favorite books has authors across Colorado and the country choosing between an unexpected payday and a protracted legal fight.
Colorado authors from Peter Heller to Camille Dungy are among the authors whose books were swept up in a copyright infringement case against Anthropic, the company that produces the AI tool Claude. Allegedly, that AI was trained in part by illegally downloading a massive volume of books, leading to a copyright lawsuit that was settled for $1.5 billion. As a part of the settlement, Anthropic has denied any wrongdoing.
Authors whose books are listed in a database that can be found online are entitled to around $3,000 per stolen work.
“Even if it was $10,000, I have to say no amount of money makes me feel good about my creative work being used to train what I really think is a dangerous creation as it currently is being presented to us,” said Laura Pritchett, who has four titles in the Anthropic database including “The Blue Hour” and “Sky Bridge.”
Pritchett, who teaches at Western Colorado University, notes that, for most authors, the $3,000-per-title number is likely to be less, as publishers will be entitled to some of that money as well. Still, Pritchett went ahead and submitted her claim to her portion of the settlement, her skepticism of artificial intelligence notwithstanding.
“My writing buddies and I joke that if we actually get any money, we'll go out and celebrate, but I think it will, in part, to be frank, it's going to be a sad celebration because we didn't want our creative work used to train AI overlords that will possibly replace us,” Pritchett said.
Colorado-based authors who spoke with CPR News about this story were unanimous that their frustration with having their work stolen was surpassed by the ire that it was being used to train artificial intelligence tools. Peter Heller’s “The Dog Stars” and “The Painter” were among his works included in the settlement.
“AI as a project right now is leading to a concentration of power in the hands of people and entities that have proven themselves time and time again not to have any moral compass. And I think it's extremely dangerous for the world and the fact that these companies are using my art, literature that I created and copyrighted material that I own to train their chatbot to do … whatever they're going to do, and to reap commercial benefit from that and huge power is just scary,” Heller said. “I mean, I think it's ‘Halloween’ scary. I really do.”
That concern about the broader use of AI is among the reasons Denver author Scott Carney is on a campaign to get authors to not take the settlement.
“Anthropic literally stole our books. They downloaded the books illegally, and they used our work to create basically a whole business that was designed to destroy professional writing. And so I'm pretty upset about it. I think I'm worth more than $3,000. This lawsuit is barely a speed bump; even though it's the largest copyright settlement in history, it's also the world's largest copyright theft. And I think that if we want to continue to exist, authors need to step up and put something more than just a speed bump in the way,” Carney said.
Carney has several titles he could make claims on, but instead, he’s lawyering up and encouraging other authors to follow suit. The problem, Carney says, is that Anthropic is getting off easy with this settlement. He points to copyright law that says penalties for “willful infringement” could be as high as $150,000 per violation.
“We have to do something, and this is something that we can do, tactically,” Carney said. “I would love to see this go in front of a jury. Now, the thing about a settlement is that it doesn't go to a jury. They just sort of pay a fine, and they go on with their lives as if it's just an expense. But if you're able to go in front of 12 humans who are sitting there listening to the case, I think that authors actually have a pretty decent shot at getting real damages.”
In newsletters and online videos, Carney has been advocating authors to explore their options to pursue further litigation to get a bigger settlement, something they won’t be able to do if they accept the payout.
“Just based on that theft, it should be trillions of dollars. It shouldn't be billions of dollars of damages,” Carney said.
Heller had not yet filed his claim, but said he would be speaking with publishers and agents about next steps. Pritchett’s claim is in the works. She said she’s not in the position for a legal fight, but she’s happy some authors are.
“I certainly understand that approach, and I fully support the endeavor and wish them the best of luck,” she said.
