Theranos Whistleblower Reporter Sues Major AI Firms Over Copyright Infringement
Investigative journalist John Carreyrou, best known for uncovering the Theranos scandal, has filed a lawsuit against several leading artificial intelligence companies, accusing them of using copyrighted books without permission to train their AI systems.
Filed on Monday in a California federal court, the case names Elon Musk’s xAI, Anthropic, Google, OpenAI, Meta Platforms, and Perplexity as defendants. Carreyrou, a New York Times reporter and author of Bad Blood, brought the case alongside five other writers, alleging that the firms illegally copied and fed their works into large language models (LLMs) that underpin AI chatbots.
First Lawsuit to Include xAI
The lawsuit marks the first instance in which Musk’s xAI has been named in a copyright case. Representatives for all six companies declined to comment or did not immediately respond to requests for statements regarding the filing.
The plaintiffs argue that the companies’ AI training practices amount to “massive, systemic piracy” of books, depriving authors of rightful compensation. In contrast to other ongoing cases, the group has chosen not to form a broader class action, asserting that such collective lawsuits tend to benefit defendants by facilitating discounted settlements.
“LLM companies should not be able to extinguish thousands upon thousands of high-value claims at bargain-basement rates,” the complaint stated.
Previous Settlements and Ongoing Disputes
In August, Anthropic reached a landmark $1.5 billion settlement in a separate AI copyright dispute involving a class of authors who claimed their books had been copied without permission. However, the latest complaint criticises that settlement, arguing that affected authors will receive only about 2% of the maximum $150,000 statutory damages available per infringed work under U.S. copyright law.
The new lawsuit was filed by attorneys from Freedman Normand Friedland, including Kyle Roche—a lawyer profiled by Carreyrou in a 2023 New York Times article. Roche previously faced criticism from U.S. District Judge William Alsup for encouraging authors to opt out of Anthropic’s settlement in pursuit of better compensation.
Carreyrou later told the court that using pirated books to train AI systems was Anthropic’s “original sin,” insisting that earlier legal agreements failed to hold the company sufficiently accountable.
Growing Legal Pressure on AI Firms
This case adds to a growing wave of legal actions challenging how AI companies acquire and use copyrighted material to train their systems. As regulators and courts increasingly scrutinise data usage in AI development, major technology firms could face mounting financial and reputational risks if found liable for large-scale copyright violations.
with inputs from Reuters
