A group of authors has filed a lawsuit against Microsoft in a New York federal court.

They allege that the company used their books without permission to train its Megatron AI model. The plaintiffs include writers Kai Bird, Jia Tolentino, and Daniel Okrent, among others.

They claim that Microsoft uses a dataset of nearly 200,000 pirated books to train the AI, which generates text responses to user prompts.

The lawsuit said that the AI system mimics the syntax, voice, and themes of the copyrighted works.

This case adds to a growing list of lawsuits against tech companies, including Meta Platforms, Anthropic, and OpenAI, regarding the use of copyrighted materials in AI training.

Microsoft has not yet commented on the lawsuit. The authors are seeking an injunction to prevent further alleged infringement and statutory damages of up to US$150,000 per work.

This lawsuit highlights ongoing legal debates about the use of copyrighted materials for generative AI systems.

🔗 Source: Reuters

🧠 Food for thought

1️⃣ Tech copyright battles follow recurring patterns across generations

Microsoft’s current legal challenge echoes decades of landmark intellectual property disputes in the technology sector.

The pattern began with Apple suing Microsoft in 1988 over GUI elements, where Microsoft ultimately prevailed due to a licensing agreement that inadvertently covered future software releases 1.

This was followed by Google’s victory against Oracle in 2016 over the use of Java APIs in Android, where the jury ruled Google’s use of 37 APIs constituted fair use despite Oracle seeking $9 billion in damages 2.

These cases demonstrate how courts consistently weigh transformative use against market harm, with outcomes often favoring tech companies that can prove their usage creates something fundamentally new.

The Microsoft lawsuit continues this pattern of content creators asserting rights while tech companies claim fair use, with precedents suggesting transformative applications often prevail despite initial legal challenges.

2️⃣ Courts are establishing a nuanced legal framework for AI training