Reddit sues Anthropic for allegedly 'scraping' user comments to train chatbot Claude
Social media platform Reddit sued the artificial intelligence company Anthropic on Wednesday, alleging that it is illegally "scraping" the comments of millions of Reddit users to train its chatbot Claude.
Reddit claims that Anthropic has used automated bots to access Reddit's content despite being asked not to do so, and 'intentionally trained on the personal data of Reddit users without ever requesting their consent.'
Anthropic said in a statement that it disagreed with Reddit's claims "and will defend ourselves vigorously.'
Reddit filed the lawsuit Wednesday in California Superior Court in San Francisco, where both companies are based.
'AI companies should not be allowed to scrape information and content from people without clear limitations on how they can use that data,' said Ben Lee, Reddit's chief legal officer, in a statement Wednesday.
Reddit has previously entered licensing agreements with Google, OpenAI and other companies that are paying to be able to train their AI systems on the public commentary of Reddit's more than 100 million daily users.
Those agreements 'enable us to enforce meaningful protections for our users, including the right to delete your content, user privacy protections, and preventing users from being spammed using this content,' Lee said.
The licensing deals also helped the 20-year-old online platform raise money ahead of its Wall Street debut as a publicly traded company last year.
Anthropic was formed by former OpenAI executives in 2021 and its flagship Claude chatbot remains a key competitor to OpenAI's ChatGPT. While OpenAI has close ties to Microsoft, Anthropic's primary commercial partner is Amazon, which is using Claude to improve its widely used Alexa voice assistant.
Much like other AI companies, Anthropic has relied heavily on websites such as Wikipedia and Reddit that are deep troves of written materials that can help teach an AI assistant the patterns of human language.
In a 2021 paper co-authored by Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei — cited in the lawsuit — researchers at the company identified the subreddits, or subject-matter forums, that contained the highest quality AI training data, such as those focused on gardening, history, relationship advice or thoughts people have in the shower.
Anthropic in 2023 argued in a letter to the U.S. Copyright Office that the "way Claude was trained qualifies as a quintessentially lawful use of materials,' by making copies of information to perform a statistical analysis of a large body of data. It is already battling a lawsuit from major music publishers alleging that Claude regurgitates the lyrics of copyrighted songs.
But Reddit's lawsuit is different from others brought against AI companies because it doesn't allege copyright infringement. Instead, it focuses on the alleged breach of Reddit's terms of use, and the unfair competition, it says, was created.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Time of India
3 hours ago
- Time of India
India will need 50L new CAs by 2050, says ICAI president
Vadodara: By 2050, India will require 50 lakh new chartered accountants (CAs) to support its rapidly expanding economy, said Charanjot Singh Nanda, president of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI), on Friday. Nanda was speaking at the inaugural session of a two-day national conference titled 'Veda Excellence', hosted by the Vadodara branch of ICAI's Western India Regional Council in collaboration with the Anand and Bharuch branches. "Currently, India has around 4.85 lakh registered CAs. With economic growth, the demand for qualified professionals will increase significantly," Nanda said. Highlighting ICAI's digital initiatives, he said the institute has provided students free access to ChatGPT and launched CA-GPT, an AI-powered tool that sources answers exclusively from ICAI's internal resources. "This tool has been widely appreciated for aiding professionals in areas like accounting, auditing, and taxation," he noted. Responding to the move by company secretary and cost accountant bodies seeking inclusion of their members in the definition of 'accountants', Nanda maintained that tax and other audits should remain the domain of CAs, as they are best equipped and trained for these responsibilities. Nanda also announced the launch of a certificate course on artificial intelligence — AI for CAs (Level 1) — aimed at helping professionals adapt to emerging technologies. The second level of the course will be launched soon, he added. The two-day conference in Vadodara will cover eight sessions, including those on technical and non-technical topics like direct and indirect taxes, capital market, and even work-life balance. Around 650 participants from across the country are participating in the conference. Vadodara: By 2050, India will require 50 lakh new chartered accountants (CAs) to support its rapidly expanding economy, said Charanjot Singh Nanda, president of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI), on Friday. Nanda was speaking at the inaugural session of a two-day national conference titled 'Veda Excellence', hosted by the Vadodara branch of ICAI's Western India Regional Council in collaboration with the Anand and Bharuch branches. "Currently, India has around 4.85 lakh registered CAs. With economic growth, the demand for qualified professionals will increase significantly," Nanda said. Highlighting ICAI's digital initiatives, he said the institute has provided students free access to ChatGPT and launched CA-GPT, an AI-powered tool that sources answers exclusively from ICAI's internal resources. "This tool has been widely appreciated for aiding professionals in areas like accounting, auditing, and taxation," he noted. Responding to the move by company secretary and cost accountant bodies seeking inclusion of their members in the definition of 'accountants', Nanda maintained that tax and other audits should remain the domain of CAs, as they are best equipped and trained for these responsibilities. Nanda also announced the launch of a certificate course on artificial intelligence — AI for CAs (Level 1) — aimed at helping professionals adapt to emerging technologies. The second level of the course will be launched soon, he added. The two-day conference in Vadodara will cover eight sessions, including those on technical and non-technical topics like direct and indirect taxes, capital market, and even work-life balance. Around 650 participants from across the country are participating in the conference. Get the latest lifestyle updates on Times of India, along with Eid wishes , messages , and quotes !
Time of India
6 hours ago
- Time of India
Nilekani commits second multi-year grant to AI4Bharat
Bengaluru: Infosys cofounder and chairman Nandan Nilekani committed a second multi-year grant to AI4Bharat—an open-source initiative at IIT Madras that is building foundational AI models for Indian languages. Its work spans speech recognition, machine translation, text-to-speech, and language understanding for all major Indian languages. In 2020, Nilekani saw the transformative potential of AI in Indian languages. Nilekani-founded EkStep Foundation and AI4Bharat began investing in language digitisation, data infrastructure, and early models tailored to Indian linguistic diversity. Applications were built within weeks of ChatGPT's release, ranging from chatbots in regional languages to integrations in governance and education. AI4Bharat's models became the underlying infrastructure for this deployment. AI4Bharat has become the language backbone of India's AI stack. Its open-source speech, translation, and text-to-speech models now power key public digital platforms. Bhashini, India's national language platformunder the IndiaAI Mission, has adopted AI4Bharat's models to scale multilingual services across governance, healthcare, and finance. by Taboola by Taboola Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like Giao dịch CFD với công nghệ và tốc độ tốt hơn IC Markets Đăng ký Undo The Supreme Court's SUVAS system translates judgments into regional languages. Agricultural chatbots like Kisan e-Mitra use these models to deliver real-time information to farmers. AI4Bharat's language datasets—meticulously collected in all 22 constitutionally recognised Indian languages—have been released as public goods, openly available for use through the AI4Bharat website and integrated into AIKosh, India's open AI repository. "Inclusion begins with access—and for Bharat, that means language," said Nilekani. "AI4Bharat is building the infrastructure that ensures every AI divide, the vision of 'AI for All' is extremely relevant for our country. Indians can access digital services in the language they speak." Prof V Kamakoti, director of IIT Madras, said, "With the growing need for Bharat-specific AI models and also reducing the possibility of a potential. The 2022 grant established the Nilekani Centre at AI4Bharat, supported by EkStep Foundation. Over three years, this effort demonstrated how to build population-scale, high-quality, and open-source language infrastructure through community participation and scientific rigour. "I strongly believe that India can be the use case capital of AI in the world," said Nilekani. "With our DPI foundation, we can build better AI, and in turn, AI can turbocharge DPI. Our belief is that AI should be inclusive, not extractive. It should amplify every human being's potential. That's our vision of AI for the people—AI to make lives better, AI to amplify human potential. People plus AI is how we hope to leverage AI and actually make it work for people at scale." Get the latest lifestyle updates on Times of India, along with Eid wishes , messages , and quotes !
Time of India
8 hours ago
- Time of India
Mission Admission 2025: How engineering curriculum adapts to Artificial Intelligence, industry needs
Bengaluru: Artificial Intelligence won't take your job, someone who knows AI will. When the panel at Mission Admission summarised the changing scenario of engineering, hundreds of students listened ardently to the evolving curriculum in colleges. The session was moderated by Atul Batra, ex-chairperson, Nasscom Product Council. KN Subramanya, principal of RV College of Engineering, said the knowledge students acquire in the first year becomes outdated by the time they graduate. Therefore, engineering education now focuses on both knowledge and skills, ensuring students can adapt to future changes. Today's curriculum is flexible, allowing students from one branch to take minors or honours in emerging fields such as cloud computing or cybersecurity. Udaya Kumar Reddy KR, dean of school of engineering, Dayananda School of Engineering, said while AI tools like ChatGPT can help, they should augment, not replace, foundational knowledge. He emphasised the importance of asking smart questions and understanding where to draw the line to avoid over-reliance on AI and preserve critical thinking skills. The panel also discussed how teaching methods in engineering are changing — traditional lectures are being replaced by more interactive and experiential learning. This includes group projects, hackathons, internships and industry collaborations from early years. Students are encouraged to solve real-world problems and develop innovative solutions. Seshachalam D, vice-principal, BMS College of Engineering, explained: "If industry and academia jointly tackle Bengaluru's traffic or waste management, research becomes impactful." However, challenges remain, the panelists observed. Institutions need to invest in modern infrastructure and ensure faculty are trained in new technologies. Collaboration with industry is essential, not just for short-term projects but for building centres of excellence focused on research and innovation. — Raksha Hosur Pradeep & Prathikaa V Shastry Get the latest lifestyle updates on Times of India, along with Eid wishes , messages , and quotes !
