Reddit has filed a lawsuit against AI startup Anthropic, claiming that the company has misused its data. The lawsuit, which was submitted in San Francisco, accuses Anthropic of breaching their agreement by using Reddit’s user posts to train its AI models without permission.
Reddit argues that Anthropic has been using personal data from its users without consent, which they say harms the platform. The lawsuit aims to seek damages and ensure that Anthropic follows the rules set out in Reddit’s user agreement. Reddit has clear guidelines for how its data can be used, and it has partnerships with other AI companies like OpenAI and Google, which comply with these rules.
In contrast, Reddit claims that Anthropic acts as if it can take content freely and use it however it wants. They describe Anthropic as disregarding the rules that protect users and their data.
Anthropic, founded in 2021 by former OpenAI executives, has received significant investment, including backing from Amazon. The company was recently valued at $61.5 billion, and its AI model, Claude, has been trained on a wide range of user-generated content, including that from Reddit.
An Anthropic spokesperson responded to the lawsuit by stating that the company disagrees with Reddit’s claims and plans to defend itself vigorously. The case is expected to go to a jury trial, as requested by Reddit.
This legal dispute comes after Anthropic faced criticism for an incident where its AI chatbot, Claude, generated false legal citations in a previous case. This has raised concerns about the reliability of AI systems and their implications in legal contexts.
As the lawsuit unfolds, it highlights ongoing tensions between social media platforms and AI companies over data usage and user privacy.