Welcome to the forefront of conversational AI as we explore the fascinating world of AI chatbots in our dedicated blog series. Discover the latest advancements, applications, and strategies that propel the evolution of chatbot technology. From enhancing customer interactions to streamlining business processes, these articles delve into the innovative ways artificial intelligence is shaping the landscape of automated conversational agents. Whether you’re a business owner, developer, or simply intrigued by the future of interactive technology, join us on this journey to unravel the transformative power and endless possibilities of AI chatbots.
AI company Anthropic has agreed to a $1.5 billion settlement on Friday, aimed at resolving a sweeping class-action lawsuit brought by authors who alleged the company used pirated copies of their books to train its chatbot, Claude.
According to the proposed agreement, which is subject to judicial approval, the settlement provides roughly $3,000 to each of the authors for the estimated 500,000 books covered. If approved, it would make this “the largest publicly reported copyright recovery in history.”
The Authors Guild, which represents thousands of writers, welcomed the outcome. On Friday, its CEO, Mary Rasenberger, called the settlement “an excellent result for authors, publishers, and rightsholders generally, sending a strong message to the AI industry that there are serious consequences when they pirate authors’ works to train their AI, robbing those least able to afford it.”
The lawsuit was initiated last year by author Andrea Bartz and writers Charles Graeber and Kirk Wallace Johnson. They later came to represent a broader class of writers and publishers after Anthropic was accused of downloading millions of pirated books to train its AI models.
In June, U.S. District Judge William Alsup ruled that while training AI chatbots on copyrighted books was not in itself illegal, Anthropic had wrongfully obtained more than 7 million digitized works from piracy websites, including Books3, Library Genesis, and the Pirate Library Mirror.
Had the company gone to trial in December and lost, analysts said the financial blow could have been devastating. “We were looking at a strong possibility of multiple billions of dollars, enough to potentially cripple or even put Anthropic out of business,” said William Long, a legal analyst with Wolters Kluwer.
The deal comes amid heightened scrutiny of AI companies. Last month, X Corp and X.AI filed an antitrust lawsuit against Apple and OpenAI, accusing them of monopolistic practices in smartphones and generative AI chatbots. Additionally, in Texas, Attorney General Ken Paxton recently launched an investigation into Meta and Character.ai over whether their chatbots misled children with deceptive claims of providing therapeutic support, raising concerns about privacy and data exploitation.
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Treaty relinquishing Panama Canal signed
On September 7, 1977, US President Jimmy Carter and Panamanian Chief of Government Omar Torrijos signed the Panama Canal Treaty relinquishing American control over the canal effective in the year 2000.
Boxer Protocol signed, ending Boxer Rebellion in China
On September 7, 1901, the Boxer Protocol was signed between the Qing Dynasty of China on one side and eight Western Powers and Japan on the other. The treaty ended the Boxer Rebellion in China. Among other clauses, it levied an indemnity on China and allowed foreign troops to be stationed in Peking.
