Highlights
- Five major publishers file class action lawsuit in New York.
- Meta accused of using pirated materials to train Llama AI system.
- Company denies wrongdoing, cites fair use defence.
The lawsuit claims Meta illegally downloaded millions of copyrighted books and journal articles from pirate websites while training its AI language tool called Llama.
"In their effort to win the AI 'arms race' and build a functional generative AI model, Defendants Meta and Zuckerberg followed their well-known motto: 'move fast and break things'," the legal filing states.
It describes the alleged actions as "one of the most massive infringements of copyrighted materials in history".
Meta, valued at $1.5 trillion, has rejected the allegations and vowed to contest the lawsuit strongly.
The company argues that using copyrighted material for AI training can qualify as fair use.
"AI is powering transformative innovations, productivity and creativity for individuals and companies, and courts have rightly found that training AI on copyrighted material can qualify as fair use," Meta said in a statement.
The case represents the latest attempt by writers and publishers to seek compensation from tech companies over AI training practices.
Last year, AI firm Anthropic paid $1.5 billion to settle similar claims. However, not all such cases succeed.
A San Francisco court previously ruled against 13 writers, including Ta-Nehisi Coates, who brought comparable claims against Meta, though the judge noted his ruling applied only to that specific case.
