Key facts
- Google faces a class action lawsuit from publishers and authors over AI training data.
- Plaintiffs allege Google used copyrighted works to train its Gemini AI platform without authorization.
- The lawsuit claims Google altered or removed copyright information to hide the use of unauthorized training data.
- Google allegedly used books from Google Books and the Google Play store for AI training.
- An internal Google document suggested potential fines of $10 billion to $100 billion for such practices.
Google is facing a new class action lawsuit filed by a consortium of publishers and authors, including Hachette, Cengage, and Elsevier, along with author Scott Turow. The plaintiffs accuse the tech giant of illegally using their copyrighted works to train its Gemini AI model without proper authorization.
The lawsuit, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, further alleges that Google intentionally removed or altered copyright information on these materials to conceal the unauthorized use. Publishers claim Google trained Gemini on copies of books obtained through limited-use programs like Google Books and the Google Play store, for which they never granted permission.
This legal challenge is part of a broader trend of copyright holders suing AI companies over training data. While some early court decisions in California have favored AI firms by deeming such use as "fair use" under current copyright law, these rulings are not considered definitive precedent. The lawsuit against Google highlights a more complex relationship, as publishers have historically provided Google with copyrighted works for specific purposes, such as enabling book searches that display only snippets and bibliographic information.
An internal Google document cited in the lawsuit reportedly indicated that using copyrighted books for AI training could be "highly problematic" and potentially lead to fines ranging from $10 billion to $100 billion. In a separate case, AI company Anthropic was fined $1.5 billion for pirating training materials, the largest payout in U.S. copyright law history, though many authors opted out of settlements to pursue further legal action.