AI's Copyright War Reignites: 'Bad Blood' Author Leads New Lawsuit Against OpenAI, Google, and 4 Others

Just when the AI industry thought its copyright battles were settling down, a new legal firestorm is erupting. A group of writers, including Theranos whistleblower and “Bad Blood” author John Carreyrou, is filing a new lawsuit against six major AI companies: Anthropic, Google, OpenAI, Meta, xAI, and Perplexity. They accuse the companies of a foundational sin: training their powerful LLMs on pirated copies of their books.

Why a $1.5 Billion Settlement Wasn't Enough

This legal challenge echoes a previous class-action suit against Anthropic. In that case, a judge ruled that while it was legal for AI companies to train on pirated books, the act of pirating the books in the first place was not. That lawsuit concluded with a $1.5 billion settlement from Anthropic, allowing eligible writers to receive about $3,000.

However, some authors were deeply dissatisfied. They argue the settlement fails to hold AI companies accountable for using stolen material to generate billions in revenue. According to the new lawsuit, the previous Anthropic settlement "seems to serve [the AI companies], not creators." The filing states that LLM companies shouldn't be able to extinguish high-value claims at "bargain-basement rates" and avoid the true cost of their infringement.

A Broadening War on Data Sourcing

By targeting a wide array of industry leaders, this new lawsuit signals a significant escalation. It's no longer about a single company; it's a coordinated challenge against the entire industry's data acquisition practices. The outcome could set a critical precedent for how AI models are built, sourced, and monetized in the future.