Latest news with #ex-OpenAI
Mint
3 hours ago
- Business
- Mint
Reddit says Anthropic used its community to train AI without permission, files lawsuit
Social media platform Reddit has launched legal proceedings against artificial intelligence company Anthropic, accusing the firm of unlawfully scraping user-generated content to train its AI assistant, Claude. Filed on Wednesday in the California Superior Court in San Francisco, the lawsuit alleges that Anthropic used automated tools to extract Reddit users' comments without permission, despite being explicitly told not to do so. According to Reddit, this content was then used to train the Claude chatbot, without user consent or proper licensing. You may be interested in 'AI companies should not be allowed to scrape information and content from people without clear limitations on how they can use that data,' said Reddit's Chief Legal Officer, Ben Lee. He emphasised the platform's commitment to safeguarding its community, which generates vast volumes of public discourse each day. Reddit, which went public last year, has previously struck licensing deals with AI developers such as OpenAI and Google. These arrangements, the company says, allow for transparent and lawful use of data while enabling user protections like content deletion and spam prevention. 'These partnerships allow us to enforce meaningful safeguards for our users,' Lee added, underlining the contrast between authorised data access and Anthropic's alleged misconduct. Anthropic, founded by ex-OpenAI executives in 2021 and now backed heavily by Amazon, denies the allegations. 'We disagree with Reddit's claims and will defend ourselves vigorously,' the company said in a brief statement. The legal complaint takes a different route from other recent cases involving AI firms. Rather than alleging copyright infringement, as seen in lawsuits from music publishers targeting Claude for replicating song lyrics, Reddit's filing focuses on breach of contract and unfair competition. Specifically, it accuses Anthropic of violating Reddit's terms of service by scraping data without a proper license. The lawsuit cites a 2021 research paper co-authored by Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei, in which Reddit's subforums were explicitly mentioned as high-quality sources for training AI systems. Forums covering topics like gardening, history, and personal advice were listed as especially valuable for modelling human language patterns. Anthropic has previously claimed, including in a 2023 letter to the US Copyright Office, that its methods of training Claude constitute lawful use, describing them as a form of statistical analysis rather than reproduction of content.
NBC News
16 hours ago
- Business
- NBC News
Reddit sues AI startup Anthropic for breach of contract, ‘unfair competition'
Reddit is suing artificial intelligence startup Anthropic for what it's calling a breach of contract and for engaging in 'unlawful and unfair business acts' by using the social media company's platform and data without authority. The lawsuit, filed in San Francisco on Wednesday, claims that Anthropic has been training its models on the personal data of Reddit users without obtaining their consent. Reddit alleges that it has been harmed by the unauthorized commercial use of its content. Reddit shares closed up more than 6% on Wednesday. The company opened the complaint by calling Anthropic a 'late-blooming' AI company that 'bills itself as the white knight of the AI industry.' Reddit follows by saying, 'It is anything but.' 'For its part, despite what its marketing material says, Anthropic does not care about Reddit's rules or users: it believes it is entitled to take whatever content it wants and use that content however it desires, with impunity,' the filing said. In an emailed statement, an Anthropic spokesperson said, 'We disagree with Reddit's claims and will defend ourselves vigorously.' Since the generative AI boom began with the launch of OpenAI's ChatGPT in late 2022, Reddit has been at the forefront of the conversation. Its 20-year-old site is filled with user-generated information about hundreds of thousands of topics and has been a main source of training for large AI models, including Anthropic's Claude. Reddit announced a partnership with OpenAI in May that will allow the company to train its AI models on Reddit content. The company has a similar agreement with Google. In the lawsuit, Reddit said that 'other giants in the AI space understand and respect Reddit's rules.' It named OpenAI and Google as companies that 'are permitted to use public Reddit content but only after agreeing to Reddit's licensing terms' protecting user privacy. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman is a former board member and major shareholder in Reddit, with a stake now worth well over $1 billion. In March, Anthropic was valued at $61.5 billion in a funding round led by Lightspeed Venture Partners, and including participation from Salesforce Ventures and Cisco Investments. The company, founded in 2021 by ex-OpenAI executives, has been backed heavily by Amazon. Reddit held its IPO in 2024 and now has a market cap of about $22 billion. Reddit says it has established rules dictating how its data can be used, which the company says in the filing 'are clearly memorialized' in the Reddit's user agreement. 'While Reddit has always been of the mind that the community should be open to all humans looking for connection and community, it has never allowed its platform and the countless communities who find a home on it to be appropriated by commercial actors seeking to create billion-dollar enterprises and offering nothing in return to Reddit and its users,' the complaint says. Reddit said the aim of the lawsuit is to seek damages and compel Anthropic to abide by its contractual and legal obligations. It's asking for a jury trial.
Miami Herald
17 hours ago
- Business
- Miami Herald
Reddit sues Anthropic, says AI company exploited user data
Reddit Inc. sued artificial intelligence firm Anthropic, saying it has used the social media company's content without permission to train its AI models. The lawsuit, which was filed Wednesday in San Francisco Superior Court, alleges that Anthropic attempted to access Reddit data more than 100,000 times since last July. Reddit said this "unauthorized commercial use of its content" has breached its rules and exploited users' personal data without their consent. An Anthropic spokesperson said the company disagrees "with Reddit's claims and will defend ourselves vigorously," The AI firm, which was started by a group of ex-OpenAI employees, has taken a public position of being more oriented toward safety and responsibility than some of its competitors. Reddit, a San Francisco-based social media platform, called Anthropic's emphasis on trust and honesty "empty marketing gimmicks." The AI startup "bills itself as the white knight of the AI industry," yet "it is anything but," Reddit said in the lawsuit. "We believe in an open internet - that doesn't mean open for commercial exploitation," Ben Lee, Reddit's chief legal officer, said in an email. "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." In an interview, Lee said Reddit held several conversations with Anthropic in an effort to reach a licensing agreement, as it has with other AI companies such as OpenAI and Alphabet Inc.'s Google. Lee said he was optimistic about reaching a deal until recently and views the lawsuit as the company's final option to force Anthropic back to the bargaining table. Reddit would prefer to reach an agreement outside of court, Lee said, as the legal process could be lengthy. This suit is among a flurry of high-profile complaints against AI companies, including Meta Platforms Inc. and OpenAI, over claims of unauthorized use of copyrighted material to train their generative AI models. In March, a New York federal judge ruled that a copyright infringement suit brought by the New York Times and other newspapers can move forward against OpenAI and Microsoft over alleged unauthorized use of news articles to train chatbots and other AI tools. The newspapers are seeking billions of dollars in damages as compensation for unlawful use of their copyrighted content. The case is Reddit Inc. v. Anthropic PBC, CGC-25-625892, California Superior Court, San Francisco County. (With assistance from Malathi Nayak.) Copyright (C) 2025, Tribune Content Agency, LLC. Portions copyrighted by the respective providers.
Yahoo
21 hours ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Reddit Sues Anthropic, Says AI Company Exploited User Data
(Bloomberg) -- Reddit Inc. sued artificial intelligence firm Anthropic, saying it has used the social media company's content without permission to train its AI models. ICE Moves to DNA-Test Families Targeted for Deportation with New Contract The Global Struggle to Build Safer Cars At London's New Design Museum, Visitors Get Hands-On Access LA City Council Passes Budget That Trims Police, Fire Spending NYC Residents Want Safer Streets, Cheaper Housing, Survey Says The lawsuit, which was filed Wednesday in California state court, alleges that Anthropic attempted to access Reddit data more than 100,000 times since last July. Reddit said this 'unauthorized commercial use of its content' has breached its rules and exploited users' personal data without their consent. Anthropic declined to comment on the lawsuit. The AI firm, which was started by a group of ex-OpenAI employees, has taken a public position of being more oriented toward safety and responsibility than some of its competitors. Reddit, a San Francisco-based social media platform, said it has 'established a market for licensing content.' Reddit has reached AI licensing agreements with Anthropic competitors OpenAI and Alphabet Inc.'s Google, and said in the lawsuit that 'other giants in the AI space understand and respect Reddit's rules.' 'We believe in an open internet — that doesn't mean open for commercial exploitation,' Ben Lee, Reddit's chief legal officer, said in an email. '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.' --With assistance from Shirin Ghaffary. Cavs Owner Dan Gilbert Wants to Donate His Billions—and Walk Again YouTube Is Swallowing TV Whole, and It's Coming for the Sitcom Millions of Americans Are Obsessed With This Japanese Barbecue Sauce Is Elon Musk's Political Capital Spent? Trump Considers Deporting Migrants to Rwanda After the UK Decides Not To ©2025 Bloomberg L.P. Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
Business Insider
a day ago
- Business
- Business Insider
OpenAI engineers are 8 times as likely to join Anthropic than the reverse, a report says. Here's why.
The AI startup Anthropic is siphoning top talent from OpenAI and Google's DeepMind. It's eight times as likely for an OpenAI engineer to join Anthropic than vice versa, according to a report from venture capital firm SignalFire published late last month, based on LinkedIn data. The trend was even more pronounced for DeepMind, Google's AI division, where the ratio was 11:1 in Anthropic's favor. In a fierce war for AI talent, Anthropic's strong positioning on safety and technical chops, as well as its earlier-stage startup status, have all helped it snap up talent, the report said. It has poached top leaders, including two of OpenAI's cofounders. Anthropic itself was formed out of a group of former OpenAI employees. Anthropic also has a strong retention rate, SignalFire found, with an 80% rate compared to OpenAI's 67%. DeepMind followed closely behind Anthropic with a 78% retention rate. Both Anthropic and OpenAI are growing fast. Anthropic's careers page lists just over 200 positions, while OpenAI lists almost 330. Safety first Top OpenAI leaders have left for Anthropic in part because of its focus on AI safety. For example, Jan Leike jumped ship from OpenAI in 2024. He co-led its superalignment team, which aims to keep future superintelligent AI systems "aligned" with human values. In an X post about his resignation, Leike said that OpenAI's "safety culture and processes have taken a backseat to shiny products." He now co-leads Anthropic's alignment team. OpenAI cofounder John Schulman also resigned last year to join OpenAI, writing on X he wanted to "deepen" his focus on AI alignment. Schulman has since left Anthropic to join ex-OpenAI CTO Mira Murati's startup, Thinking Machines. As Business Insider previously reported, Thinking Machines is seeking upwards of $2 billion for its seed round. Schulman isn't the only OpenAI cofounder to have joined Anthropic. So did AI researcher Durk Kingma, who also worked for several years at DeepMind. Anthropic has also poached several prominent DeepMind staff. It hired DeepMind senior staff research scientist Neil Housby to set up its new office in Zurich, as Housby revealed on X earlier this year. Anthropic also hired research scientist Nicholas Carlini out of DeepMind this spring after he spent seven years working for Google. In his blog post, Carlini wrote that "the people at Anthropic actually care about the kinds of safety concerns I care about, and will let me work on them." SignalFire also attributes the talent shift partly to Anthropic's AI assistant, Claude, gaining popularity among developers — though OpenAI's ChatGPT is a popular coding tool, too. "Engineers often gravitate toward companies whose products they admire and use," the report says. Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei predicted earlier this year that AI will soon generate 90% of the code developers are in charge of. Early stage has its advantages Anthropic's position as an earlier-stage company could also help. OpenAI, valued at $300 billion, has existed since 2015, while Anthropic, valued at $61.5 billion, was founded in 2021. And Google has long been a public company. The prospect of getting early equity can be more enticing with an earlier-stage company like Anthropic, said Zuhayeer Musa, the cofounder of engineer compensation platform "People may see much more future upside at Anthropic than joining OpenAI, even though growth is quite strong at both," Musa said. Also, there may be fewer Anthropic veterans looking to switch in the first place, SignalFire's head of research, Asher Bantock, told Business Insider.
