Canadian publishers sue Anthropic over AI training

Global News reported that a coalition of Canadian news publishers is suing Anthropic, an AI company, in an Ontario court. Postmedia, Torstar, The Globe and Mail and The Canadian Press allege that Anthropic infringed their copyright by using their content to develop Claude, its large language AI model. The suit was filed on October 6th; Cartt.ca, a news site, first reported it. The allegations have not been proven in court.

According to Global News, publishers have urged Ottawa to take a position on how AI systems use copyrighted content, after its national AI strategy did not address the issue.

The claim separates three wrongs: copyright infringement, breach of the websites’ terms of service (their rules for visitors) and circumvention of technological protection measures meant to restrict copying.

Anthropic has not responded to Global News’s request for comment, so its position is not yet known. The same publishers and CBC/Radio-Canada sued OpenAI in 2024; that case has not been settled.

Sources: Global News