Authors Sue Microsoft Over Use of 200,000 Pirated Books for AI Training

A group of authors, including Pulitzer Prize-winner Kai Bird and New Yorker staffer Jia Tolentino, has filed a lawsuit against Microsoft, accusing the company of using nearly 200,000 pirated copyrighted books without permission to train its Megatron AI model. The lawsuit claims the AI model mimics the authors' syntax, voice, and themes, effectively creating derivative works without authorization, and demands statutory damages of up to $150,000 per infringed work along with an injunction to prevent further use. This legal action is part of a broader wave of copyright disputes targeting major tech firms like Meta, Anthropic, and OpenAI over the unauthorized use of creative content in AI training. The case follows a recent California federal court ruling that deemed the use of lawfully obtained copyrighted materials in AI training may qualify as fair use, but pirated content does not. Microsoft has not publicly commented on the lawsuit. The case highlights ongoing tensions regarding ethical AI training practices and copyright law in the rapidly evolving AI sector.