Reddit sues AI company Anthropic for allegedly 'scraping' user comments to train chatbot Claude

Social media platform Reddit sued the artificial intelligence company Anthropic on Wednesday, alleging that it is illegally "scraping" the comments of millions of Reddit users to train its chatbot Claude.

Reddit claims that Anthropic has used automated bots to access Reddit's content despite being asked not to do so, and “intentionally trained on the personal data of Reddit users without ever requesting their consent.”

Anthropic said in a statement that it disagreed with Reddit’s claims "and will defend ourselves vigorously.”

Reddit filed the lawsuit Wednesday in California Superior Court in San Francisco, where both companies are based.

“AI companies should not be allowed to scrape information and content from people without clear limitations on how they can use that data,” said Ben Lee, Reddit's chief legal officer, in a statement Wednesday.

Reddit has previously entered licensing agreements with Google, OpenAI and other companies that are paying to be able to train their AI systems on the public commentary of Reddit's more than 100 million daily users.

Those agreements “enable us to enforce meaningful protections for our users, including the right to delete your content, user privacy protections, and preventing users from being spammed using this content,” Lee said.

The licensing deals also helped the 20-year-old online platform raise money ahead of its Wall Street debut as a publicly traded company last year.

Anthropic was formed by former OpenAI executives in 2021 and its flagship Claude chatbot remains a key competitor to OpenAI's ChatGPT. While OpenAI has close ties to Microsoft, Anthropic's primary commercial partner is Amazon, which is using Claude to improve its widely used Alexa voice assistant.

Much like other AI companies, Anthropic has relied heavily on websites such as Wikipedia and Reddit that are deep troves of written materials that can help teach an AI assistant the patterns of human language.

In a 2021 paper co-authored by Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei — cited in the lawsuit — researchers at the company identified the subreddits, or subject-matter forums, that contained the highest quality AI training data, such as those focused on gardening, history, relationship advice or thoughts people have in the shower.

Anthropic in 2023 argued in a letter to the U.S. Copyright Office that the "way Claude was trained qualifies as a quintessentially lawful use of materials,” by making copies of information to perform a statistical analysis of a large body of data. It is already battling a lawsuit from major music publishers alleging that Claude regurgitates the lyrics of copyrighted songs.

But Reddit's lawsuit is different from others brought against AI companies because it doesn’t allege copyright infringement. Instead, it focuses on the alleged breach of Reddit's terms of use, and the unfair competition, it says, was created.

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FILE - Reddit Inc. signage is seen on the New York Stock Exchange trading floor, prior to Reddit IPO, Thursday, March. 21, 2024. v(AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura, File)

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — The Indianapolis Colts promoted 44-year-old quarterback Philip Rivers to the active roster Saturday, making him eligible to play — and perhaps start — in Sunday's crucial game at Seattle.

Indy (8-5) brought the Pro Football Hall of Fame semifinalist out of retirement Tuesday when it signed him to the practice squad. Rivers practiced all week but he hasn't taken a snap since what appeared to be the end of his career following the 2020 season.

The move to add Rivers to the active roster will take him off the Hall of Fame ballot for the class of 2026. Rivers had been picked last month as one of 26 semifinalists with the 15 finalists expected to be announced later this month.

Rivers will no longer be eligible with Hall of Fame rules mandating a player being out of the league for at least five years before his candidacy can be considered. The earliest Rivers now can be a candidate is for the class of 2031.

The signing of Rivers came after coach Shane Steichen confirmed starting quarterback Daniel Jones would miss the rest of this season with a torn right Achilles tendon. Jones, who wore No. 17 with the Colts, had surgery earlier this week and now is allowing Rivers to wear the No. 17 he wore throughout his long NFL career.

Indy has lost three straight and four of its last five to fall out of the AFC South lead into a tie for second with the Houston Texans. The Colts also have slid into the No. 8 seed for the seven-team playoff field. The Seahawks (10-3) are trying to stay in the NFC West title chase.

The Colts believe Rivers, an eight-time Pro Bowler who was the 2013 NFL Comeback Player of the Year and a 2011 Walter Payton Man of the Year finalist, can salvage their postseason hopes. Rivers still ranks among the league's top 10 in wins, career attempts, completions, yards passing, touchdown passes and 300-yard games.

Alternately, rookie Riley Leonard could make his first career start. But he's dealt with a right knee injury all week, and the only other quarterback on Indy's roster is veteran Brett Rypien, who also was promoted from the practice squad to the active roster this week.

Indy also activated receiver Coleman Owen and defensive tackle Chris Wormley to the active roster from the practice squad and removed the questionable designation from defensive end Tyquan Lewis.

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FILE - Former Los Angeles Chargers quarterback Philip Rivers watches warmups before an NFL football game between the Chargers and the Denver Broncos, Dec. 10, 2023, in Inglewood, Calif. (AP Photo/Ryan Sun, File)

FILE - Indianapolis Colts quarterback Philip Rivers (17) throws a pass during the first half of an NFL wild-card playoff football game against the Buffalo Bills, Saturday, Jan. 9, 2021, in Orchard Park, N.Y. (AP Photo/Adrian Kraus, File)