On Wednesday, June 4, Bloomberg reported that Reddit Inc. (NYSE:RDDT) has filed a lawsuit against Anthropic, alleging unauthorized use of its user-generated content to train AI models. The suit, lodged in San Francisco Superior Court, claims that Anthropic tried to access Reddit’s data more than 100,000 times since mid-2024 without securing a licensing agreement.
Anthropic is an American AI startup founded in 2021 that has developed a family of large language models (LLMs) named Claude that competes with OpenAI’s ChatGPT and Google’s Gemini.
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Reddit accuses Anthropic of commercially exploiting its platform’s content and user data, in violation of its terms of service. According to Reddit’s legal team, the company engaged in multiple discussions with Anthropic to establish a data licensing deal, similar to the arrangements it has reached with OpenAI and Google. However, those talks broke down, prompting the lawsuit as a last resort.
Anthropic, which markets itself as a more ethical and safety-focused AI company, has pushed back on Reddit’s claims and plans to contest them in court.
Ben Lee, Reddit’s chief legal officer, has clearly said this regarding the development:
“We will not tolerate profit-seeking entities like Anthropic commercially exploiting Reddit content for billions of dollars without any return for redditors or respect for their privacy.”
This legal move highlights growing tensions between content platforms and AI developers. It also contributes to a growing wave of legal challenges that AI companies are facing regarding the use of data for model training. Notably, OpenAI and Microsoft are also defending against a high-profile copyright lawsuit from The New York Times and other publishers, as per Bloomberg.
While Reddit states a preference to resolve the dispute out of court, it also signals a broader industry push to ensure platforms are compensated when their data is used to fuel commercial AI development.
Reddit Inc. (NASDAQ:RDDT) is a U.S.-based social media company that operates a platform comprising user-generated communities, known as “subreddits,” where individuals can engage in discussions, share content, and vote on posts.
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