Many of the lawsuits involve alleged copyright infringement. The complaints generally claim that AI companies illegally train various large language models (LLMs) on copyrighted content from media companies.
In response, Generative AI companies typically say the lawsuits are without merit because their business strategies leverage "fair use" to train their AI models.
Meanwhile, some media companies are licensing their content to Generative AI companies -- though financial terms of such deals typically remain confidential.
The stakes are extremely high for all Internet content producers, generative AI companies and their investors. Previous technology waves -- from search engines to streaming services -- disrupted traditional paid media content models. Generative AI, some critics allege, could further pressure content providers, claiming that AI is illegally gathering and leveraging trademarked information. As a result, Generative AI threatens the sustainability of content producers worldwide, some critics claim.
The timeline below, updated regularly, tracks Generative AI lawsuits, legal cases, judgments, settlements, licensing agreements, and business outcomes. Check back regularly for updates.
AI Lawsuits: March 2025 Updates
March 26 - Lawsuit vs Anthropic: A judge has rejected a bid by music publishing companies to block Anthropic from using copyrighted lyrics to train its AI model Claude. The judge said the preliminary injunction request was too broad, and publishers Concord Music and Universal Music failed to show that Anthropic's AI training caused irreparable harm, SeekingAlpha reported.
March 25 - Meta' Legal Defense: Facebook parent Meta Platforms urged a federal judge to rule its use of protected works to train its AI model is “fair use” under the Copyright Act, and thus didn’t infringe the rights of the authors suing the company, Bloomberg Law reported.
March 21, 2025 - Lawsuit vs Apple: A federal lawsuit filed on behalf of disgruntled consumers claims that Apple misled buyers with promises of advanced AI features for Siri that never materialized, TechRepublic reported.
March 21, 2025 - Complaint vs OpenAI: A Norwegian man has filed a complaint after ChatGPT falsely told him he had killed two of his sons and been jailed for 21 years, BBC reported.
March 17 - Media vs Google and OpenAI A Chicago Tribune editorial alleged that OpenAI and Google are using national security claims to steal copyrighted content from news organizations.
March 17 - Hollywood vs Google and OpenAI: Hundreds of entertainment industry luminaries -- including Paul McCartney and Ron Howard, among others -- have signed an open letter to the White House, complaining that OpenAI and Google are threatening content-focused copyright laws, Animation Magazine reported.
March 17 - Musk Lawsuit vs. OpenAI: Musk and OpenAI have agreed to fast-track a trial over OpenAI's for-profit shift, Reuters reported.
March 13 - OpenAI and AI Training: OpenAI believes the AI race “over” if training on copyrighted works isn’t fair use, Ars Technica reported.
March 12 - Lawsuit vs Meta: French publishers and authors are taking Meta to court, accusing Facebook's parent of using their works without permission to train its AI model, the Associated Press reported.
March 10 - Lawsuit vs Meta: A judge has allowed an AI copyright lawsuit against Meta to proceed, PC Mag reported.. The lawsuit, filed in July 2023, includes such plaintiffs as authors Richard Kadrey and Christopher Golden and comedian Sarah Silverman.
March 6 - Anthropic Court Case: Anthropic and music publishers disagree on the scope of discovery in a lawsuit against Anthropic, Bloomberg Law reported.
AI Lawsuits: February 2025 Updates
February 25 - Lawsuit vs. Google:Chegg has filed a federal antitrust lawsuit against Google – alleging that Google's AI-generated summaries in search engine results has crushed its website traffic and revenue, The New York Post reported.
February 20 - Lawsuit Ruling vs. OpenAI: OpenAI must face part of an Intercept lawsuit, though a judge narrowed the case and dismissed The Intercept's claims against Microsoft, Reuters reported.
February 14 - OpenAI Partnership: OpenAI and Guardian Media Group inked a partnership that allow ChatGPT’s global users to gain summaries of the Guardian’s editorial content. Financial terms of the delationship were not disclosed.
February 13 - Lawsuit vs. Cohere: The Atlantic, Politico, Vox and other major publishers are suing AI startup Cohere for copyright and trademark infringement, The Wall Street Journal reported.
February 11 - Ruling Favors Thomson Reuters: A U.S. District Court of Delaware judge issued a partial summary judgment in favor of Thomson Reuters in its copyright infringement lawsuit against Ross Intelligence, a legal AI startup, The Verge reported. The lawsuit, filed in 2020, is one of the first cases that deals with the legality of AI tools and how they are trained, often using copyrighted data scraped from somewhere else without license or permission, the report noted.
February 10 - Elon Musk vs. Sam Altman: OpenAI CEO Sam Altman rejected Musk's unsolicited bid to buy OpenAI. The back-and-forth comes as Musk tries to stop OpenAI's shift to a for-profit business model. Several of Musk's businesses, particularly xAI, compete with OpenAI and its ChatGPT software.
February 4 - Elon Musk vs. OpenAI: U.S. District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers is skeptical about Elon Musk's lawsuit against OpenAI, but she allowed the case to proceed while also expressing concerns about the OpenAI-Microsoft relationship, The Associated Press reported.
February 4 - AI and Retail Technology: Alpha Modus filed a lawsuit against Walgreens for what it called patent infringement concerning its AI-driven retail technology, MarketWatch reported.
January 31 - Lawsuit vs. OpenAI: Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei is trying to avoid being deposed in a copyright lawsuit against rival OpenAI, TechCrunch reported.
January 28 - OpenAi Counters India Lawsuit: OpenAI asked an Indian court to quash a plea by an organization representing Indian and global book publishers alleging use of copyright content for training AI models. Reuters reported and SeekingAlpha summarized. Related: See all generative AI lawsuits and court rulings.
January 27 - Potential India Media Lawsuit vs. OpenAI: Multiple media companies in India plan to be part of a copyright lawsuit against OpenAI, Reuters reported.
January 25 - Paul McCartney's Perspectives: Sir Paul McCartney, in a BBC interview, called on the United Kingdom to protect music copyrights from AI training and other AI risks.
January 23 - Lawsuit vs. Microsoft LinkedIn: Microsoft's LinkedIn has been sued by Premium customers who allege the social media platform disclosed their private messages to third parties without permission to train generative AI models, Reuters reported. A LinkedIn spokesperson said in an emailed statement: “These are false claims with no merit,” PYMNTS reported.
January 21 - Lawsuit vs. Suno: GEMA is taking legal action against Suno, an AI-based generative music platform, Music Week reported. The German collection society has accused the company of processing recordings of songs from GEMA's repertoire without remuneration, the report said reported. It follows legal action against Suno by the RIAA in 2024, Music Week noted.
More: Continue to next page for earlier lawsuit updates.
One comment on “Generative AI Lawsuits Timeline: Legal Cases vs. OpenAI, Microsoft, Anthropic, Nvidia, Perplexity, Intel and More”
It is important to understand that while AI technology brings many benefits, there are also legal issues that need to be resolved, especially in relation to copyright. Hopefully, all parties can find a fair and balanced solution so that innovation can continue to thrive without compromising the rights of content creators. Thank you for the very informative information!
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It is important to understand that while AI technology brings many benefits, there are also legal issues that need to be resolved, especially in relation to copyright. Hopefully, all parties can find a fair and balanced solution so that innovation can continue to thrive without compromising the rights of content creators. Thank you for the very informative information!