Publishers sue Google over alleged use of books to train AI models
Multiple book publishers have sued Google, accusing the company of secretly copying millions of copyrighted works to train its AI model Gemini, creating direct competition with original authors.
Several book publishers filed a lawsuit against Google on Tuesday, alleging that the company illegally used copyrighted content to train its artificial intelligence model Gemini. The lawsuit, seeking class action status, was filed in New York by Hachette Book Group, Cengage Learning, Elsevier, author Scott Turow, and his publishing company S.C.R.I.B.E.
The publishers claim that "Google secretly copied millions of works" that were made available through Google Books and other services for limited purposes, and then used that content to train Gemini. The lawsuit states that content generated by Gemini directly competes with the original authors' work. "Gemini even tailors outputs to mimic the expressive elements and creative choices of specific authors," the lawsuit says.
The plaintiffs are requesting an injunction and an unspecified amount of damages. This is the latest copyright infringement lawsuit against AI developers. In May, several publishers – including Hachette, Cengage, Elsevier, and Turow – filed a similar lawsuit against Meta in a New York court.
In September, a US judge approved a $1.5 billion settlement between Anthropic and several authors who claimed the company illegally copied their work to train its AI model, Claude. That was a partial victory for Anthropic – the judge ruled that using books to train Claude was sufficiently transformative to constitute "fair use" under US law, but other uses of pirated materials were not. Meta also won a partial victory last year when a judge in San Francisco ruled that its use of copyrighted materials was "fair use." That case was filed by comedian Sarah Silverman, author Ta-Nehisi Coates, and others.
