A group of publishers and authors filed a class action lawsuit against Google in a New York federal court, accusing the company of illegally copying millions of copyrighted books and journal articles to develop and train its Gemini artificial intelligence models. The plaintiffs include Hachette Book Group, Cengage Learning, Elsevier, author Scott Turow, and S.C.R.I.B.E. Inc, according to medianama.com.
The lawsuit alleges that Google committed large-scale copyright infringement by copying copyrighted works from its own book services and downloading books and articles through web scraping. It further claims Google repeatedly reproduced these works during AI training and removed copyright management information, violating the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA). The complaint states that Google abandoned its early motto of 'Don't be evil' to engage in one of the most prolific infringements of copyrighted materials in history.
The plaintiffs contend that Google reproduced millions of copyrighted works without permission or compensation to authors or publishers. This case highlights growing legal challenges faced by AI developers using copyrighted content for training. The Gemini AI system, described as a multi-billion-dollar generative AI, is at the center of this dispute, raising questions about copyright protections in AI development.
The lawsuit was filed recently in a New York federal court, with the complaint and parties publicly available on medianama.com. The case could set important precedents for how copyrighted materials are used in AI training and the responsibilities of tech companies in respecting intellectual property rights.