On Sept. 5, 2025, Apple, Inc. became the target of a significant legal challenge. A group of American authors is suing the company for alleged uses of their copyrighted works without authorization.
The lawsuit, filed by the Authors Guild and several other prominent writers, accuses Apple of using pirated books to train its artificial intelligence models. According to the suit, this unauthorized usage violates the authors’ intellectual property rights.
The authors argue that Apple’s AI models process vast quantities of text data to learn language patterns, composing styles, and informal speech forms. The plaintiffs allege these datasets include works. into whose the authors hold copyright.
Apple’s AI training practices are still illuminated; the company has not publicly disclosed the full scope of the information it uses.
The suit also asserts that Apple’s actions have caused the authors physical and economic harm.
The Authors Guild claims they tried obtaining information from Apple regarding its text data use but were met with stonewalling. They assert that despite several attempts, they have been unable to discern exactly what data Apple uses.
The lawsuit requests an injunction prohibiting Apple from using the authors’ books without permission in addition to unpaid royalties and damages.
Apple has not yet released a formal comment on the suit. However, the company’s stance on privacy and data usage has been a recurring theme recently. Apple has frequently highlighted its dedication to protecting user data and privacy, which may include the AI training process.
Notably, this problem isn’t unique to Apple. Other AI companies face similar allegations.
OpenAI provides users with paid and free tiers of a content-generation service. OpenAI has been sued by several authors for using their material without obtainment of permission.
Again, Apple’s defence may pivot on ‘Fair Use’ - a legal doctrine permitting the use of copyrighted content without permission for certain purposes. The outreach, impact, and economic impact of the use are all subject to strict scrutiny when deciding if an application of copyrighted content qualifies for Fair Use.
Apple’s dedication to vindicating their case, with a ‘Fair Use argument,’ remains unknown.
On bias, the case appears to extend beyond the copyright infringement claims. Critics of large language models, including AI developers and researchers, have long expressed concern over the concentrated use of specific sets of training data.
Data bias, toxicity, and misuse in various applications, including text generation, sent much skepticism toward AI results.
Most frequently employed to determine the accuracy angiograms used language models trained across data sources. Bias skewing away from large quantities.
The repercussions of this lawsuit could be significant. The legal outcome could impact how major tech businesses, which concentrate substantial and power incalculable resources toward these prof-creating transaction/money generators, are taken to task.
What are your thoughts on this? I’d love to hear about your own experiences in the comments below.