SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — A federal judge has approved a $1.5 billion copyright settlement in which artificial intelligence company Anthropic will pay thousands of authors about $3,000 per book after using pirated copies of their works to train its Claude chatbot.
District Judge Araceli Martínez-Olguín said in a Monday ruling that the class-action settlement provides “meaningful relief” to affected authors and publishers.
About 91% of the more than 482,000 books covered by the ruling have been claimed by authors or publishers who are now due payment.
Plaintiff attorney Justin Nelson said in a statement that the settlement was "the largest known copyright recovery in history. We look forward to making distributions to the Class as promptly as possible.”
U.S. District Judge William Alsup issued the preliminary approval in San Francisco federal court last September and has since retired. Alsup had dealt the case a mixed ruling last summer, finding that training AI chatbots on copyrighted books wasn’t illegal but that Anthropic wrongfully acquired millions of books through pirate websites.
Anthropic's deputy general counsel, Aparna Sridhar, highlighted that ruling Friday as a landmark showing “that training AI on books is fair use under copyright law.”
“We are pleased that more than 91% of authors and publishers covered by the settlement have claimed their share of the payment, and we’re looking forward to bringing this matter to a close,” Sridhar said in a written statement.
Bestselling thriller novelist Andrea Bartz first brought the suit with two other authors in 2024. It's the first major settlement in dozens of AI copyright lawsuits that are still working their way through courts.
FILE - Thriller novelist Andrea Bartz is photographed in her home, in the Brooklyn borough of New York, Sept. 4, 2025. (AP Photo/Richard Drew, File)
CHARITY, Guyana (AP) — One of the survivors of a ferry that capsized in Guyana over the weekend with as many as 179 people aboard said she lost four of her grandchildren in the chaotic disaster and that the ship seemed to sink in an instant.
“I was fighting for my life. The boat sunk in minutes, seconds,” Helena Moonsammy recalled, saying that boxes fell on her as she tried to save her grandchildren. “I told my grandbabies to cling on to anything as I hollered for them. I prayed all night and was in the water for nine hours.”
At least 69 people have been rescued after the MV Barima sank late Saturday off the Essequibo coast, and 27 bodies have been found so far — four of them children, Prime Minister Mark Phillips said. But the death toll is expected to rise dramatically, he said.
Though the ship's manifest listed 116 passengers and 17 crew, authorities now believe as many as 179 people were aboard, Phillips said.
An investigation into the capsizing of the 87-year-old ferry is underway. It began taking on water during a trip Saturday from the capital, Georgetown, to Port Kaituma in northwestern Guyana, near Venezuela.
“Brace yourself for the coming days,” President Irfaan Ali said in a national address. “It is going to be a difficult period for us as a people and as a country. May God watch over Guyana and bring us through this horrible experience.”
Surviving passenger Alicia Atkinson, 18, said her 3-year-old daughter is missing but that she was able to save her 10-month-old son and float with him in the ocean, holding onto debris for about 8 hours.
“I ended up in the water and was hustling to come up for air, but my daughter just rushed out of my hand and disappeared," she said. “I miss my daughter."
Moonsammy, the grandmother, was among dozens of friends and relatives of the missing who have been gathering at a hospital in the coastal town of Charity to identify their loved ones. She wore a facemask like many Guyanese around her: “I have to see the bodies before I go home.”
Officials have said that the rescued captain and at least one other crew member tested positive for marijuana and remain in police custody as part of the criminal investigation.
Neighboring countries have sent boats, spotter planes and rescue personnel, including a contingent of divers from French Guiana as officials prepare to switch from a rescue operation to a recovery one.
Public Works Minister Juan Edghill said all staff associated with the management and loading of the MV Barima have been suspended amid suspicion that they might have illegally loaded the ferry with additional people and cargo without putting them on the manifest.
Passengers have complained for years that ticket clerks unofficially sell seats to friends and associates for cash without adding their names to the manifest, a practice that has persisted for decades at state-run ferry terminals.
The MV Barima had been dry docked and overhauled in 2024 and was due for major repairs in October.
Wilkinson reported from Georgetown, Guyana.
FILE - People sit on the seawall as the sun sets in Georgetown, Guyana, Tuesday, Nov. 19, 2024. (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix, File)
