Novelist Andrea Bartz says Anthropic agreed to pay $1.5 billion to settle claims that it trained its chatbot on pirated books. A federal judge gave preliminary approval to the agreement last week.
Author’s account and case details
Bartz wrote that she learned in 2023 that her books were in datasets for large language models. She later became a named plaintiff in a class-action lawsuit against Anthropic in August 2024.
She described the case as daunting, given Anthropic’s reported $183 billion valuation. She said her legal team pushed the company to the largest copyright settlement in history.
According to The New York Times, the settlement would pay authors and publishers about $3,000 per work. The piece calls that figure far from life-changing.
Preliminary approval and scope
Bartz referenced an Associated Press report on the judge’s preliminary approval. She wrote that hundreds of thousands of books were at issue.
Reactions, limits, and views on fair use
Bartz said the deal sends a message that Big Tech is not above the law. She argued that A.I. is not unstoppable and urged people to push for guardrails.
She called the outcome imperfect. She wrote that it took an army of lawyers to show that stealing is wrong. She also said the damages are small and a slap on the wrist for a cash-rich company.
Bartz disagreed with the judge’s view that training on legally acquired books would be fair use. She said she writes to engage human minds, not to enable an algorithm to mimic her voice. She argued that such use creates knockoffs that compete with her originals and enrich A.I. developers.
Her essay presents one author’s perspective on the settlement and its meaning. It frames the payout as a win, while noting its limits for creators.
According to The New York Times, the judge’s preliminary decision is only one step in the process. The final outcome will depend on the court’s approval and settlement administration.
