AI upstart Anthropic has agreed to create a $1.5 billion fund it will use to compensate authors whose works it used to train its models without seeking or securing permission.

News of the settlement emerged late last week in a filing [PDF] in the case filed by three authors - Andrea Bartz, Charles Graeber, and Kirk Wallace Johnson - who claimed that Anthropic illegally used their works.

We’re going to see a lot more of this. AI companies wIll create ‘slush funds’

Anthropic admitted to having bought millions of physical books and then digitizing them. The company also downloaded millions of pirated books from the notorious Library Genesis and Pirate Library Mirror troves of stolen material.

The company nonetheless won part of the case, on grounds that scanning books is fair use and usin

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