A coalition of authors, including Kai Bird, Jia Tolentino, and Daniel Okrent, has filed a lawsuit against Microsoft, claiming that the tech giant utilized their books without authorization to train its Megatron Artificial Intelligence (AI) model.
The authors assert that Microsoft employed unauthorized digital copies of their works to enable its AI to generate responses to user prompts. The lawsuit, lodged in federal court in New York on Tuesday, is part of a broader wave of legal actions initiated by authors, media organizations, and other copyright stakeholders against major tech firms such as Meta Platforms, Anthropic, and Microsoft-supported OpenAI concerning alleged infringements during AI training.
This lawsuit against Microsoft follows closely on the heels of a recent ruling from a California federal judge. The judge concluded that while Anthropic may have engaged in fair use of authors’ materials for its AI systems, the company could still face consequences for unlawfully obtaining their books. This ruling marked a significant moment as it was the first U.S. decision addressing the legality of using copyrighted materials for generative AI training without consent.
Representatives from Microsoft were unavailable for immediate comment regarding the lawsuit, and an attorney representing the authors chose not to provide statements.
In their complaint, the authors claimed that Microsoft harnessed nearly 200,000 pirated books to develop Megatron, an algorithm capable of delivering text-based responses. The document highlighted that the dataset employed by Microsoft was a construction of numerous creators’ works, engineered to produce a diverse array of expressions that emulate the syntax, tone, and themes of the protected texts it was trained on.
Technology firms typically contend that their use of copyrighted content falls under fair use, facilitating the production of new and transformative material. They warn that imposing financial obligations to copyright owners could significantly hinder the evolving AI sector.
The authors are seeking a court order to prevent Microsoft from continuing its alleged copyright infringement, along with statutory damages that could reach up to $150,000 (approximately Rs. 1.28 crore) for each book inappropriately used by Microsoft.
© Thomson Reuters 2025
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