Copyright class actions could financially ruin AI industry, trade groups say.
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.
Last week, Anthropic petitioned to appeal the class certification, urging the court to weigh questions that the district court judge, William Alsup, seemingly did not. Alsup allegedly failed to conduct a “rigorous analysis” of the potential class and instead based his judgment on his “50 years” of experience, Anthropic said.
You’re seriously kidding yourself if you think China won’t continue to pursue AI even if the profit motive is lost in American companies. And if China continues to develop AI, so will the US even if it is nationalized or developed through military contracting, or even as a secret project, because it will be framed as a national security issue. So unless you find a way to stop China from also developing AI, the tech is here to stay no matter what happens.
In short, we are in a catch-22 and people want to stop it regardless of the unintended consequences.