Equity Connected Reddit, the front page of the internet, has spoken. In particular, it has filed a lawsuit against AI startup Anthropic in San Francisco. The joint lawsuit, filed on Wednesday, claims that Anthropic’s actions represent breach of contract and unfair competition. Reddit claims that Anthropic trained its AI on data that it scraped from Reddit without permission. In this post, the attention will be on AI model Claude.
Founded two decades ago, Reddit hosts discussions on hundreds of thousands of topics, making it a treasure trove of information. This deep pool of user-generated content has sparked the creativity and passion of the TikTok community. It quickly emerged as the key resource for training the largest AI models, including those developed by Anthropic. The lawsuit asserts that Anthropic trained its AI using personal data from Reddit users without obtaining necessary consent, raising significant ethical and legal concerns.
Reddit’s complaint emphasizes that Anthropic has disregarded the platform’s rules and the rights of its users. The filing states, “For its part, despite what its marketing material says, Anthropic does not care about Reddit’s rules or users: it believes it is entitled to take whatever content it wants and use that content however it desires, with impunity.”
Reddit is currently facing accusations of egregious data abuse. Simultaneously, the company plays up its deepening integration with OpenAI, which they announced back in late May. This partnership gives OpenAI the right to use Reddit data to train its AI models. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has an interest in Reddit now valued at more than $1 billion. He is the company’s former board chair and its largest shareholder. This unique relationship further emphasizes Reddit’s dedication to working openly with partners while still respecting the uniqueness of their community and protecting their content.
Reddit’s complaint makes the case that Reddit has always been committed to creating open links between users. And yet, it claims that it won’t let for-profit companies take advantage of their community without giving something back. “While Reddit has always been of the mind that the community should be open to all humans looking for connection and community, it has never allowed its platform and the countless communities who find a home on it to be appropriated by commercial actors seeking to create billion-dollar enterprises and offering nothing in return to Reddit and its users,” the complaint elaborates.
If successful, this lawsuit would have far-reaching consequences on how social media platforms engage with AI startups. It will determine how they train their models on user-generated content. As the case proceeds in court, Reddit and Anthropic are set to be the focus of attention. They should be ready for increased scrutiny of their data practices and policies.