Big Tech companies facing new wave of lawsuits over copyright and AI
Lawsuits have been filed against executives at Big Tech companies for allegedly failing to disclose AI training methods or provide accurate information about AI strategies. (Image from Shutterstock)
Big Tech companies are facing a new wave of lawsuits from corporate shareholders who argue they are using copyrighted material to train their artificial intelligence models.
In recent months, three shareholder derivative suits have been filed against executives at Microsoft Corp. and Adobe Inc. for allegedly failing to disclose AI training methods or provide accurate information about AI strategies, according to a story from Bloomberg Law. As a result, they claim the companies are exposed to legal risks, and their stock prices have dropped.
These early lawsuits may act as “feelers” to gauge how courts respond to the uncertainty around whether it is permissible to use protected works to train AI models, Ann Lipton, a law professor at the University of Colorado, told Bloomberg Law. They follow similar litigation brought by writers, publishers and news outlets against AI companies.
More lawsuits could arise “if we start seeing more obvious financial harm as a result of copyright violations,” Lipton told Bloomberg Law.
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