Apple Inc. has been hit with a class-action lawsuit in a California federal court, filed by neuroscientists Susana Martinez-Conde and Stephen Macknik from SUNY Downstate Health Sciences University. The plaintiffs claim that Apple unlawfully used thousands of copyrighted books to train its artificial intelligence system, Apple Intelligence. According to the lawsuit, Apple sourced these materials from unauthorized “shadow libraries” that host pirated content, including works by the plaintiffs themselves.
This legal action is part of a growing wave of lawsuits targeting major tech companies over the use of copyrighted content in AI training. Other companies like OpenAI, Microsoft, Meta, and Anthropic have also faced similar allegations. Notably, Anthropic recently agreed to a $1.5 billion settlement over claims that its AI chatbot Claude was trained on copyrighted material.
The plaintiffs argue that Apple failed to obtain consent, provide credit, or offer compensation for the use of their intellectual property. This case adds to the broader debate over how AI models are trained and the ethical and legal boundaries surrounding the use of creative works in machine learning.
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