Artists push back on AI training, scoring landmark wins and guardrails

A wave of lawsuits by authors, musicians and visual artists challenges AI systems trained on copyrighted works, arguing copyright infringement or terms-of-service violations. Notable developments include Andrea Bartz’s suit against Anthropic resulting in a $1.5 billion settlement and a ruling that using pirated ebooks for training can be fair use in certain contexts, ongoing cases against Meta, Google, Suno and others, and class actions from illustrators like Sarah Andersen. While plaintiffs see these cases as paving guardrails, many creators warn that the livelihoods of independent artists remain at risk as tech companies push for broad data-use rights through their platforms and terms of service.