Humanity, the AI company that makes Claude, has announced that it will pay $1.5 billion in a settlement reached in a collective action suit that arrived on August 26, 2025. Bartz v. Human PBC, A company supported by Amazon has accused of illegally obtaining and using the system to teach AI systems.
According to the Anthropic Copyright Settlement website, authors are eligible to enter into contracts, share a $1.5 billion settlement fund, and even receive a $3,000 payment per book that humanity allegedly used for training. They can also refuse to participate in the transaction and pursue infringement claims individually. Author Guild CEO Mary Raysenberger said this is an important step in acknowledging that AI companies cannot steal the author's creative work to build AI simply because they need a book.
Before the settlement, AI companies faced trials to create a training library of technology by illegally downloading seven million books from pirate sites like library Genesis. “The later purchase of copies of those books was not stolen from the internet to cover that truck. The company may have seen the high damages caused by a decision of up to $150,000 for each work that was breached. Humanity is set to pay the settlement in four installments over two years.
According to court applications, lawyers representing the author plan to seek no more than 25% of the settlement. “We hope this is the first of many AI companies to be responsible for theft of creative work and will help set precedents that consent and rewards for the work used in AI training are non-negotiable,” the Human Artistry campaign said in a statement.
Authors who believe their work has been illegally downloaded and used in AI training can learn more about filing claims for compensation here.
SFWA.org offers more information about the author here.
