Publishers file lawsuit against Google for AI training

While there are more than 100 lawsuits currently in progress against AI companies for copyright infringement, Michael Cader at Publishers Lunch writes that this latest one is “winnable” and “stands on new, undisputable legal ground if supported by the facts.” The short version: Google used access to digital copies of books via Google Books, the Google Play bookstore, and Google Scholar—that is, copies provided by publishers for those specific platforms—to train its Gemini model. Publishers providing digital books for Google Play Books or similar platforms license them for limited purposes and certainly not AI training. The lawsuit has been brought by Hachette Book Group, Cengage, and Elsevier, plus author Scott Turow, and seeks class action status for authors and publishers. View the complaint.

The complaint notes, “Google flagged internally that using ‘Publisher Provided copyrighted books’ from Google Play Books in connection with its AI was ‘highly problematic for Google,’ warning of ‘$10Bs–$100Bs in potential fines.’” One of Google’s engineers said their rationale for moving ahead anyway was “we don’t do deals for data we already have or already possess.” Learn more.