Microsoft sued by authors over use of books in AI training
Microsoft
has been hit with a lawsuit by a group of authors who claim the company used their books without permission to train its Megatron artificial intelligence model.
Kai Bird, Jia Tolentino, Daniel Okrent and several others alleged that Microsoft used pirated digital versions of their books to teach its AI to respond to human prompts. Their lawsuit, filed in New York federal court on Tuesday, is one of several high-stakes cases brought by authors, news outlets and other copyright holders against tech companies including Meta Platforms, Anthropic and Microsoft-backed OpenAI over alleged misuse of their material in AI training.
The complaint against Microsoft came a day after a California federal judge ruled that Anthropic made fair use under U.S. copyright law of authors' material to train its AI systems but may still be liable for pirating their books. It was the first U.S. decision on the legality of using copyrighted materials without permission for generative AI training.
Spokespeople for Microsoft did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the lawsuit. An attorney for the authors declined to comment.
The writers alleged in the complaint that Microsoft used a collection of nearly 200,000 pirated books to train Megatron, an algorithm that gives text responses to user prompts. The complaint said Microsoft used the pirated dataset to create a "computer model that is not only built on the work of thousands of creators and authors, but also built to generate a wide range of expression that mimics the syntax, voice, and themes of the copyrighted works on which it was trained."
Tech companies have argued that they make fair use of copyrighted material to create new, transformative content, and that being forced to pay copyright holders for their work could hamstring the burgeoning AI industry.
The authors requested a court order blocking Microsoft's infringement and statutory damages of up to $150,000 for each work that Microsoft allegedly misused.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Time of India
11 minutes ago
- Time of India
Microsoft layoffs: Xbox faces turbulence - up to 2,000 jobs on the line as studio shutdowns loom
It looks like it's going to be a tough week for Xbox employees. There are rumors that Microsoft 's ongoing shake-up could lead to the loss of jobs. Developers are on edge and worried because they've heard rumors that entire studios are closing. Why are Xbox Studios at risk? Microsoft is preparing to lay off employees once more. As part of its organizational restructuring, the tech giant is reportedly planning to lay off employees in the Xbox division next week. Bloomberg reported that managers in its Xbox division are expecting significant layoffs. The Verge quickly supported that, claiming that managers had been notified internally and that the Xbox division might be affected by these cuts as early as next week. ALSO READ: Fito captured: The shocking crimes and net worth of Ecuador's most wanted man, José Adolfo Macias Will Xbox cut up to 2,000 jobs? Internal sources and a gaming industry veteran are warning of even deeper cuts, which is making things even more tense in Microsoft's gaming division. Live Events George Broussard, a seasoned industry veteran and one of the founders of Duke Nukem, wrote on Bluesky earlier today that internal sources anticipate the layoffs to be severe. He stated that up to 2,000 workers could be laid off, which could impact 10% of the Xbox workforce as a whole. The industry veteran has added to the mounting anxiety, and the situation does not appear to be improving. 'News has reported imminent Xbox layoffs , but I'm hearing internal developer stuff where people at most studios are anxious and worried,' Broussard stated. 'Word is that entire studios may be shuttered. Expectation is 1000-2000 people,' as quoted in a report by The Game Post. These cuts are besides those made earlier this year. Microsoft laid off 6,000 workers in May across its gaming division and other businesses. More than three hundred people were laid off earlier this month. Naturally, in early 2024, the company laid off 1,900 employees from ZeniMax, Activision Blizzard, and Xbox. But as of yet, no formal announcement has been made. How is this impacting employees? The increasing volume of reports and the specific information coming to light are making matters worse. Uncertain of whether they will still have jobs next week, developers are waiting in limbo. Rumors that entire studios are in jeopardy heighten the sense of urgency. FAQs How many Xbox employees could be laid off? Insiders fear that 1,000-2,000 jobs will be cut soon. Will Xbox close any of its studios? Rumors suggest that entire studios may be closed as part of the cuts. Economic Times WhatsApp channel )
Time of India
2 hours ago
- Time of India
After Nvidia and Google AI CEOs, top OpenAI executive says Anthropic CEO's AI job warning is 'wrong'
From left: Brad Lightcap, OpenAI chief operating officer; Sam Altman, OpenAI chief executive; and the hosts of the "Hard Fork" podcast, Casey Newton and Kevin Roose, during a live recording of "Hard Fork" at the SFJAZZ Center in San Francisco, June 24, 2025. Altman discussed President Trump's understanding of artificial intelligence, the war for AI talent and OpenAI's relationship with Microsoft. (Mike Kai Chen/The New York Times) ChatGPT-maker OpenAI 's COO, Brad Lightcap, has expressed skepticism regarding predictions made by Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei that artificial intelligence (AI) will kill entry-level white-collar positions. Taking a more measured stance, Lightcap directly addressed Amodei's recent projection that AI could eliminate 50% of entry-level white-collar jobs within the next five years. 'We've seen no evidence of this. Dario is a scientist, and I would hope that he takes an evidence-based approach to these types of things,' Lightcap stated during The New York Times' "Hard Fork" podcast. Lightcap asserted that OpenAI, which collaborates with a vast array of businesses, hasn't observed any impending doom for these employees. 'We work with every business under the sun. We look at the problem and opportunity of deploying AI into every company on earth, and we have yet to see any evidence that people are kind of wholesale replacing entry-level jobs,' he explained. by Taboola by Taboola Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like Buy One, Get One Free, Up To 50% Discount, Expiring Soon Original Adidas Shop Now Undo Meanwhile, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman echoed Lightcap's sentiments, joining him for the panel interview. Altman suggested that historical precedent indicates innovations like AI typically lead to new job creation. The great AI job debate Amodei's forecast, shared last month, was reportedly intended to galvanise governments and competitors into preparing for future changes. He expressed concern that 'Most of them are unaware that this is about to happen... It sounds crazy, and people just don't believe it.' This contrast in outlook highlights a significant debate among tech leaders. While some executives, including those at Shopify and Duolingo, are encouraging managers to prove that AI cannot fill new roles, figures like Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang, Google DeepMind CEO Demis Hassabis and LinkedIn cofounder Reid Hoffman also hold differing views. Huang is more optimistic that AI will reshape jobs rather than simply eliminate them, and Hoffman, while not predicting a 'bloodbath,' believes AI's full impact is still underestimated. Hassabis said AI will disrupt traditional roles and that the technology will also create valuable and new jobs, asking students and professionals to embrace AI tools. Skullcandy Dime Evo: 5 Features That Make It Stand Out! AI Masterclass for Students. Upskill Young Ones Today!– Join Now
Mint
2 hours ago
- Mint
Microsoft launches Mu AI model for smart local tasks on Windows PCs
Microsoft has rolled out a small AI model called Mu that runs locally on Copilot+ PCs. It is designed to give users fast and accurate help by using the device's Neural Processing Unit instead of relying on cloud servers. Mu already supports the Windows Settings app for users in the Windows Insider Dev Channel. You can type natural language queries like "turn on night light," and Mu understands and responds in real time. The model has 330 million parameters and uses a Transformer encoder-decoder setup. This allows it to process input and output separately, which leads to better speed and lower delay. Microsoft claims that Mu generates more than 100 tokens per second and has much lower latency than other models of its size. Mu was trained using Azure A100 GPUs and tuned with advanced methods such as grouped-query attention and rotary positional embeddings. These help the model work efficiently even on limited hardware. To ensure Mu runs well on different PCs, Microsoft partnered with Intel, AMD, and Qualcomm. With post-training quantisation, the model was adapted to work with lower-precision formats like 8-bit and 16-bit integers. On devices like the Surface Laptop 7, Mu achieves output speeds over 200 tokens per second. Initially, Microsoft tested a larger model called Phi LoRA, which was accurate but slow. Mu, after fine-tuning, proved to be faster while still meeting the accuracy requirements. The team scaled up Mu's dataset to include 3.6 million training samples and added support for hundreds of Windows system settings. Features like prompt tuning and noise injection improved the model's ability to understand real-world queries. Mu is part of Microsoft's broader push to bring AI features directly to the device. It builds on earlier research from models like Phi and Phi Silica and will likely play a key role in future AI experiences on Windows PCs.
