On Wednesday, Reddit initiated legal action against the AI startup Anthropic, alleging that the company unlawfully used data from the social media platform to train its AI models, contradicting its previous assurances of non-usage.
The lawsuit, filed in San Francisco Superior Court, marks another chapter in the growing concerns surrounding AI firms’ alleged unauthorized exploitation of external content. Anthropic is backed by major investors including Amazon and Alphabet, the parent company of Google.
An Anthropic spokesperson stated, “We disagree with Reddit’s claims and will defend ourselves vigorously.”
The lawsuit claims that Anthropic has declined to enter into a licensing agreement while training its Claude chatbot on Reddit’s data, despite having stated last July that it had blocked access to its platform for its bots.
Reddit pointed to an instance where the Claude chatbot acknowledged being “trained on at least some Reddit data” and expressed uncertainty about whether that data had been deleted.
The complaint also highlighted that Anthropic’s bots have made attempts to access Reddit content over 100,000 times, which raises questions about the company’s self-appointed image as a trustworthy player in the AI sector.
According to the lawsuit, “Anthropic refuses to respect Reddit’s guardrails and enter into a license agreement,” in contrast to companies like Google and OpenAI.
By scraping content from Reddit and utilizing it for commercial gain, Anthropic has violated the platform’s user policy, allegedly profiting to the tune of tens of billions of dollars, the complaint stated.
Ben Lee, Reddit’s Chief Legal Officer, commented that while the platform supports an open internet, it is essential for AI companies to adhere to “clear limitations” regarding the use of scraped content.
Both Reddit and Anthropic operate in close proximity in San Francisco, with their offices located just a short walk apart.
The lawsuit seeks unspecified restitution and punitive damages, as well as an injunction to prevent Anthropic from using Reddit content for commercial purposes.
Anthropic recently unveiled its latest Claude models, Opus 4 and Sonnet 4, on May 22. Sources indicate that the company’s annualized revenue has reached approximately $3 billion.
The case is formally registered as Reddit Inc v. Anthropic PBC, California Superior Court, San Francisco County, No. CGC-25-524892.
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