Reddit, the popular social media platform, has filed a lawsuit against AI startup Anthropic, alleging breach of contract and unfair business practices. The self-described “frontpage of the internet,” a notorious left-wing echo chamber, claims Anthropic has been vacuuming up user posts to train its AI systems.
CNBC reports that Reddit has taken legal action against Anthropic, a prominent AI startup, for what it claims to be a breach of contract and engaging in “unlawful and unfair business acts.” The lawsuit, filed in San Francisco, alleges that Anthropic has been using Reddit’s platform and data to train its AI models without proper authorization and in violation of Reddit’s user agreement.
According to the complaint, Anthropic has been unlawfully leveraging the personal data of Reddit users to train its AI models without obtaining their consent. Reddit argues that this unauthorized commercial use of its content has caused harm to the company. The lawsuit aims to seek damages and compel Anthropic to abide by its contractual and legal obligations.
Reddit, whose data is attractive for AI training because it includes a massive number of text posts and replies created by humans, has established clear rules dictating how its data can be used by AI companies. The company states that these rules are “clearly memorialized” in its user agreement. Reddit has partnerships with other major AI companies, such as OpenAI and Google, which are permitted to use public Reddit content but only after agreeing to Reddit’s licensing terms that protect user privacy.
In contrast, Reddit claims that Anthropic, despite its self-proclaimed image as the “white knight of the AI industry,” does not respect Reddit’s rules or users. The complaint states, “It believes it is entitled to take whatever content it wants and use that content however it desires, with impunity.”
Anthropic, founded in 2021 by former OpenAI executives, has been heavily backed by Amazon and was recently valued at $61.5 billion in a funding round led by Lightspeed Venture Partners. The company’s AI model, Claude, has been trained on vast amounts of user-generated content from platforms like Reddit.
In response to the lawsuit, an Anthropic spokesperson stated, “We disagree with Reddit’s claims and will defend ourselves vigorously.” The case is set to proceed with a jury trial, as requested by Reddit.
In May, a lawsuit for Anthropic was forced to apologize after the company’s own AI chatbot Claude provided him with completely false legal citations. As Breitbart News previously reported:
In a filing made in a Northern California court on Thursday, Anthropic acknowledged that its AI system Claude “hallucinated” a legal citation used by the company’s lawyers. The imaginary citation included “an inaccurate title and inaccurate authors,” according to the filing.
The admission came as part of Anthropic’s response to allegations raised earlier this week by lawyers representing Universal Music Group and other music publishers. The publishers accused Anthropic’s expert witness, company employee Olivia Chen, of using the Claude AI to cite fake articles in her testimony in their ongoing lawsuit against the AI firm.
Read more at CNBC here.
Lucas Nolan is a reporter for Breitbart News covering issues of free speech and online censorship.