News AI industry horrified to face largest copyright class action ever certified

[AgentPete]

AI industry groups are urging an appeals court to block what they say is the largest copyright class action ever certified. They've warned that a single lawsuit raised by three authors over Anthropic's AI training now threatens to "financially ruin" the entire AI industry if up to 7 million claimants end up joining the litigation and forcing a settlement.

More here:

AI industry horrified to face largest copyright class action ever certified

Copyright class actions could financially ruin AI industry, trade groups say.

arstechnica.com

I'm not optimistic, given the state of endemic, naked corruption that’s been normalised now in Trump’s America. The AI boys are not short of a few bill of VC cash to throw at the feet of the right people.

One comment sums it up: “Their entire argument is essentially this will bankrupt us so please don't let it happen.”

Also...

Also backing Anthropic's appeal, advocates representing authors, libraries, and digital rights groups—including Authors Alliance, the Electronic Frontier Foundation, American Library Association, Association of Research Libraries, and Public Knowledge—pointed out that the Google Books case showed that proving ownership is anything but straightforward.

The above organisations need to explain very clearly to authors why they’re taking this position. To me, I’m afraid it looks like they suckers.

 

[Pamela Jo]

To me, I’m afraid it looks like they suckers."
Well they suck if they are not taking a stand for bankrupting AI.

"Also backing Anthropic's appeal, advocates representing authors, libraries, and digital rights groups" These organisations are pro AI or anti? I would think anti and so SHOULD be SO much more vocal. And where is the SOA?

Son Jack is working on the new Vikings which is meant to revive the original because the Valhalla version was so much shite imagined by nepo babies. Think 1950 shoot em up westerns.
He's seeing a future where there is no place to rise thru the ranks and learn the craft because costume and makeup is no longer needed as background artists are all AI generated, ditto camera operators, grips etc... There is no room for new ideas and this summer's crop of movies bear that out. The sons and daughters of the famous only want the illusion of employment to talk about at Burning Man or Coachella.
If publishing swallows the Koolaid and nothing outside old tropes gets published then it's just the snake swallowing its own tail. Maybe it's no surprise that Bollywood and Korean music and film are roaring down the track. AI knows only English.

 

[LJ Beck]

Whoa, this is huge. And a very complex issue.

Seems to me on the one hand... YAY that this is being brought to task! It should be. It should have been long ago. But great that this company (and all of the AI learning companies) are being held accountable (fingers crossed) for their blatant theft and abuse of the lack of repercussions and recompense for their actions. Like, fucking YAY!

On the other hand, it seems that this is getting lost in legal goobily gook. My limited understanding is that a class action will include everyone falling under that classification, which is authors?? And that means that these 3 people who are filling this class action suit will be determining the rights of all authors for this. Is that correct? How many authors do they have actively backing this claim? And what will that do to the copyright laws? I can see how this is going to be very messy. How will they determine who benefits from the decision if the class remains certified.

One major disappointment for me is that the Author's Alliance is in support of AI use. That makes me so very sad. I had just discovered the Author's Alliance, and now I have to undiscover them.

This is an excerpt from an article on this on their website: Authors Alliance Files Amicus Brief Asking the Ninth Circuit to Review Class Certification in Bartz v. Anthropic

"Yesterday, we asked the 9th Circuit to grant the petition to review the case because, as we explain in the brief, this case has profound implications for how authors’ works are used for training large language models, a transformative technology that will enhance creativity, advance research and learning, and expand access to knowledge. Authors Alliance has also supported authors who are engaged in text data mining and AI research, relying on the very same legal defenses that Anthropic has asserted in this case."

It's the "enhance creativity" that I take such strong objection to. It's this morally bankrupt view of creativity that is at the heart of the issue of this kind of AI for me.

It does go on to argue about the specifics of a class action, and why it might not represent everyone in that class. Which is the one bit that I feel is valid, unfortunately.

I would so love to see this company, and from a rippling effect, all of these money-grubbing, villainous AI companies ruining our culture go up in flames. This one suit might not make it, but I hope it encourages more efforts of this kind, and some realizations that this kind of AI shit is simply not good for humans.

 

[AgentPete]

My limited understanding is that a class action will include everyone falling under that classification, which is authors?? And that means that these 3 people who are filling this class action suit will be determining the rights of all authors for this. Is that correct?

That’s my inference, too. Actually, it’s the only possible reason I can see for all these author-friendly organisations to be on the other side of this case.

Even so, if their argument is essentially, “we’re not quite ready to take this case on, and in any case, we don’t think those three people are the right three” then my question would be – where the @&%$! have you been all this time, and why haven’t you guys been leading the way?

One major disappointment for me is that the Author's Alliance is in support of AI use. That makes me so very sad. I had just discovered the Author's Alliance, and now I have to undiscover them.

This is what the Authors’ Alliance says in support of its position:

...the complexity of years of publishing contracts makes ownership determinations fraught and prone to conflict ... rightsholders have genuine and significant differences of opinion about the legality of AI and the specific uses Anthropic has engaged in … there is no realistic pathway to resolving these issues in a common way …

Sorry, but that’s written by a lawyer, not by a campaigner for authors’ rights.

It's the "enhance creativity" that I take such strong objection to. It's this morally bankrupt view of creativity that is at the heart of the issue of this kind of AI for me.

Totally agree. Most people are shockingly uninformed about the nature of LLMs and AI.

AI cannot be “creative” in any meaningful way. LLMs are based upon preexisting material, all produced by the human mind, that it endlessly iterates and reassociates. This is not creativity at work, far from it.

I would so love to see this company, and from a rippling effect, all of these money-grubbing, villainous AI companies ruining our culture go up in flames. This one suit might not make it, but I hope it encourages more efforts of this kind, and some realizations that this kind of AI shit is simply not good for humans.

People are starting to realize these things, slowly, as they gain experience. But separating the truth from the hype is exceedingly difficult.

 

[LJ Beck]

Even so, if their argument is essentially, “we’re not quite ready to take this case on, and in any case, we don’t think those three people are the right three” then my question would be – where the @&%$! have you been all this time, and why haven’t you guys been leading the way?

THIS! It's mind boggling. I just don't understand how it's gotten this far or how anyone is still in support of it, or supporting it by using it. I feel like this is the new street drug (peddled by big corp), and people are still refusing to admit how bad it is, and don't have the strength to just say no yet.

People are starting to realize these things, slowly, as they gain experience. But separating the truth from the hype is exceedingly difficult.

I hope you're right. It is difficult, and it's a bigger issue really... a statement on the state of the collective mind. Life's too hard, and people are desperate for easy, anything will do. Ignoring that it will make things even harder in the long run. But I do hope that people will stop believing the hype and the marketing line, "it's here to stay" and realize that it's only here to stay if we let it.

 

[Bloo]

A surprising number of people are pro-AI. Take a look on Reddit. Entire subs are devoted to training and using AI - be it writing, art, or code.

Even subs not devoted to AI have been infiltrated. On the WordPress sub, every other post is about "vibe coding" - web dev via prompt. The web hosting and development subs have been overrun.

AI boosters are even trolling creative spaces. Call out AI on Deviant Art, and you're "ableist." Complain about it on a writing sub, and you're "entitled" or a "gatekeeper."

My workplace is full of adapt-or-die AI boosters as well. They absolutely worship wealthy tech-bros.

Sadly, the market is already set up for the coming layoffs. Poor people do not matter in this new marketplace.

We are really cooked.