Anthropic's $1.5 billion book settlement descends into chaos as authors and publishers fight over who gets paid

Authors and publishers fight over how to split Anthropic's $1.5 billion settlement, the largest copyright deal in US history. Anthropic has to pay $3,000 for every illegally downloaded book used to train its chatbot Claude. More than 482,000 titles are affected.

But as payouts begin, authors and publishers keep filing competing claims with the settlement administrator, the New York Times reports. Mary Rasenberger, head of the Authors Guild, says many publishers don't keep accurate records of rights that have reverted to authors. Textbook authors are hit especially hard, with some receiving as little as 10 to 15 percent under their contracts. Literary agencies are also claiming shares of the money even though they have no legal standing to do so, according to Writer Beware.

Author April Henry discovered that HarperCollins was claiming rights to a book that had long since reverted to her. A nonfiction author said her publisher wanted to give her just 10 percent. A court had ruled Anthropic's use of illegally obtained books unlawful but deemed training on legally purchased books fair use. For disputes that can't be resolved, a court-appointed arbitrator will step in.

AI News Without the Hype – Curated by Humans

Subscribe to THE DECODER for ad-free reading, a weekly AI newsletter, our exclusive "AI Radar" frontier report six times a year, full archive access, and access to our comment section.