Salesforce sued for using copyrighted material in AI training
What's the story
Salesforce, a leading cloud-computing company, has been slapped with a class action lawsuit by authors Molly Tanzer and Jennifer Gilmore. The plaintiffs allege that Salesforce unlawfully used thousands of books, including their own works, to train its artificial intelligence (AI) software. The complaint was filed on Wednesday and claims copyright infringement by the tech giant in training its xGen AI models for language processing.
Legal representation
Authors represented by Joseph Saveri
The authors are represented by attorney Joseph Saveri, who has previously filed similar lawsuits against tech companies on behalf of copyright owners. He stressed the need for transparency from companies using copyrighted material for AI products, saying, "It's also only fair that our clients are fairly compensated when this happens." This case adds to the growing list of lawsuits filed by authors, news outlets, and other content owners against tech giants such as OpenAI, Microsoft, and Meta Platforms.
Industry impact
Implications for tech companies
The lawsuit highlights a major issue in the AI industry, where many tech companies are accused of using copyrighted material without permission. The plaintiffs argue that firms like Salesforce, which use intellectual property from copyright holders, should fairly compensate them. The complaint also notes that Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff has publicly criticized other AI companies for using "stolen" training data and said compensating content creators would be "very easy to do."