An uproar has erupted in the artificial intelligence and social media sectors as Reddit has officially filed a lawsuit against Anthropic’s AI on Wednesday. The suit alleges breach of contract, claiming the company engaged in illegal and unfair business practices by using social media data without permission.
Furthermore, the complaint states that Anthropic trained its AI models using user data as a resource, which was done illegally, causing significant harm to Reddit.
A Growing Menace?
In light of the severity of the situation, Reddit’s legal head, Bennett Lee, spoke to TechCrunch, declaring, “We will not tolerate profit-driven entities like Anthropic commercially exploiting Reddit content for billions of dollars without any compensation for Reddit users or regard for their privacy.”
Reddit has acknowledged forming partnerships with other AI model providers like OpenAI and Google, allowing them to conduct experiments using user data. However, the social media network emphasizes that these partnerships have specific conditions aimed at safeguarding user interests and privacy.
The issue of legal action against AI providers isn’t isolated to Reddit. The New York Times has also taken OpenAI to court for using its news articles to train models without payment or permission. Additionally, Sarah Silverman and other writers have sued Meta for similar reasons.
Anthropic Denies All Allegations Regarding Its AI
While Reddit’s complaint includes attempts to communicate with Anthropic and outline their grievances, it appears that the startup has refused any dialogue. Anthropic’s spokesperson, Danielle Ghighlieri, responded to TechCrunch, stating, “We disagree with Reddit’s claims and will defend ourselves vigorously.”
In its legal filings, Reddit also mentioned that Anthropic’s web crawlers ignored the robots.txt files, which are used to permit or deny the crawling of websites. Reddit alleges that Anthropic continued to scrape the platform over 100,000 times even after announcing it would block its robots in 2024.
Given the magnitude of the situation, Reddit is seeking damages and restitution for profits earned by the startup through rule violations. Additionally, an injunction is requested to prevent Anthropic’s AI models from using its content.
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Samantha Klein is a seasoned tech journalist with a sharp focus on Apple and mobile ecosystems. With over a decade of experience, she brings insightful commentary and deep technical understanding to the fast-evolving world of consumer technology.