Yazılar

Reddit Sues AI Firm Anthropic for Alleged Unauthorized Use of Data

/in /tarafından

Reddit has filed a lawsuit against artificial intelligence startup Anthropic, accusing it of illegally using Reddit’s content to train its AI models without permission or a licensing agreement. The suit was filed Wednesday in San Francisco Superior Court, marking the latest legal clash over AI companies’ use of third-party online content.

In the complaint, Reddit alleges that Anthropic has scraped and exploited data from the platform over 100,000 times, despite publicly claiming last year that it had blocked its bots from accessing Reddit. According to Reddit, Anthropic’s Claude chatbot even acknowledged it was trained on at least some Reddit data, but could not confirm whether deleted content had been included.

“Anthropic refuses to respect Reddit’s guardrails and enter into a license agreement,” the complaint says, contrasting the company’s stance with that of Google and OpenAI, both of which have entered licensing arrangements with Reddit.

Reddit claims Anthropic’s actions violate its user policies and have allowed the startup to enrich itself by “tens of billions of dollars.” The lawsuit seeks unspecified restitution, punitive damages, and an injunction to stop Anthropic from further using Reddit content for commercial purposes.

Anthropic Responds

An Anthropic spokesperson said the company disagrees with Reddit’s claims and intends to defend itself vigorously. The lawsuit adds further scrutiny to Anthropic, whose backers include tech giants Amazon and Alphabet (Google).

Anthropic recently launched its latest Claude models, Opus 4 and Sonnet 4, on May 22, and has reportedly reached $3 billion in annualized revenue, according to sources familiar with the matter.

Growing Legal Tensions Over AI Training Data

This legal dispute highlights a broader industry-wide debate over how AI companies source and utilize data to train large language models. Many websites and publishers argue that AI firms are profiting from content without compensating the creators, while AI companies contend that publicly available internet data falls under fair use.

In a statement, Reddit Chief Legal Officer Ben Lee emphasized the platform’s support for an open internet but said AI companies need “clear limitations” when it comes to scraping and monetizing content.

Both companies are headquartered in San Francisco, located just a few blocks apart.

The case has been filed under Reddit Inc v Anthropic PBC, California Superior Court, San Francisco County, No. CGC-25-524892.

Google Hit with £5 Billion Lawsuit in the UK Over Alleged Abuse of Online Search Dominance

/in /tarafından

Alphabet’s Google is facing a class action lawsuit in the UK that could result in damages of up to £5 billion ($6.6 billion or approximately Rs. 56,536 crore). The lawsuit, filed at the Competition Appeal Tribunal, accuses the tech giant of abusing its dominant position in the online search market, claiming that its actions have inflated advertising costs and harmed competition. The legal battle highlights the growing scrutiny of Google’s market practices, particularly its influence over online search and advertising.

The class action, led by competition law expert Or Brook, argues that Google’s business practices have allowed the company to charge higher prices for the ads that appear in search results than it would be able to in a competitive market. A significant part of the case revolves around Google’s alleged agreements with phone manufacturers to pre-install Google Search and the Chrome browser on Android devices. The lawsuit also claims that Google paid Apple to make its search engine the default on iPhones, further stifling competition from other search engines.

According to the plaintiffs, these practices were designed to give Google a competitive edge in the online search and advertising markets, ensuring its search engine had superior functionality and features compared to its rivals. By locking in users and developers to its ecosystem, the lawsuit claims Google effectively shut out competitors, reducing choices for consumers and increasing costs for advertisers.

In response, Google has dismissed the lawsuit as “speculative and opportunistic.” A spokesperson for the company stated that the tech giant would “vigorously” defend itself against the claims. The spokesperson further argued that consumers and advertisers continue to use Google’s services because they are helpful and effective, not because there are no alternatives in the market. This lawsuit adds to the growing legal challenges Google faces in various countries over its market dominance and antitrust practices.

Google Settles Class Action Lawsuit with $100 Million Payment to Advertisers

/in /tarafından

Google has agreed to pay $100 million in cash to settle a class action lawsuit filed by advertisers, which alleged the company overcharged them through its AdWords program (now Google Ads) by failing to provide promised discounts and charging for ads outside the geographic areas that advertisers targeted. The settlement was filed on Thursday in a federal court in San Jose, California, and is pending judicial approval.

The lawsuit, which dates back to 2011, accuses Google of breaching contract terms by manipulating its Smart Pricing algorithm to artificially reduce discounts and failing to limit ad distribution as specified by the advertisers. The plaintiffs also claimed that Google’s actions violated California’s unfair competition law.

The settlement covers all advertisers who used Google’s AdWords program between January 1, 2004, and December 13, 2012. Google has denied any wrongdoing, stating that the case was related to changes made to ad product features over a decade ago.

Plaintiff attorneys may seek up to 33% of the settlement fund, as well as $4.2 million in expenses. The case required extensive evidence, including over 910,000 pages of documents and several terabytes of click data from Google.