Reddit has taken legal action against AI startup Anthropic, accusing the company of unlawfully scraping content from its platform to train the Claude AI chatbot, despite public promises to avoid such practices. The lawsuit, filed in San Francisco, marks a major escalation in the ongoing battle over
Reddit has filed a lawsuit against artificial intelligence startup Anthropic, accusing it of scraping vast amounts of user-generated content from the platform to train its AI models without permission.
The lawsuit, lodged in San Francisco Superior Court on Wednesday, alleges that Anthropic used Reddit content to train its Claude chatbot, even after publicly stating last July that it had blocked its bots from accessing Reddit’s servers. The company, backed by tech giants Amazon and Alphabet (Google’s parent company), is now facing claims of violating Reddit’s user policy and unjustly enriching itself "to the tune of tens of billions of dollars."
“We believe in an open internet,” said Reddit Chief Legal Officer Ben Lee. “But AI companies need clear limitations on how they use content they scrape.”
According to the complaint, Anthropic's bots accessed—or attempted to access—Reddit content more than 100,000 times, despite repeated requests to enter into a licensing agreement. Reddit highlighted that unlike Google and OpenAI, Anthropic has refused to respect platform guardrails or formalize content usage.
Reddit further pointed to statements from Anthropic’s Claude chatbot, which reportedly admitted it had been trained on "at least some Reddit data" and was unsure whether that data had since been deleted.
In a statement, Anthropic responded:
“We disagree with Reddit’s claims and will defend ourselves vigorously.”
The lawsuit seeks unspecified damages, restitution, and a court order preventing Anthropic from using Reddit content for commercial purposes.
The case marks the latest flashpoint in a broader debate over how AI companies gather training data—often from publicly available platforms—without compensating content creators.
Anthropic launched its latest models, Claude Opus 4 and Sonnet 4, on May 22. The company’s annualized revenue has reportedly surged to $3 billion, according to sources familiar with its financials.
Both Reddit and Anthropic are based in San Francisco, separated by less than a mile—but the growing tension between social platforms and AI developers is drawing global attention to the legal and ethical boundaries of data use in the AI era.
A Ukrainian man suspected of coordinating the 2022 sabotage of the Nord Stream gas pipelines has begun a hunger strike, demanding respect for his fund...
Residents of northern Afghanistan began a clean-up operation on Tuesday after a powerful 6.3 magnitude earthquake left at least 20 dead and almost 1,0...
Australia will provide households, including renters and those without solar panels, with at least three hours of free solar power daily under a new g...
Start your day informed with AnewZ Morning Brief: here are the top news stories for 4 November, covering the latest developments you need to know....
U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said on Tuesday that Washington would explore "flexibility" for American troops stationed in South Korea to addres...
Australia will provide households, including renters and those without solar panels, with at least three hours of free solar power daily under a new government scheme starting in 2026.
U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said on Tuesday that Washington would explore "flexibility" for American troops stationed in South Korea to address regional threats while maintaining the alliance’s core focus on deterring North Korea.
Chinese President Xi Jinping has pledged to boost mutual investment and deepen economic cooperation with Russia, as Moscow faces growing Western sanctions and trade pressure.
Israel’s top military legal officer Yifat Tomer-Yerushalmi, who resigned last week, has been arrested over the leak of a video showing soldiers brutally assaulting a Palestinian detainee at the Sde Teiman military prison.
Russia said on Monday that its troops had advanced in the eastern Ukrainian city of Pokrovsk, a transport and logistics hub that they have been trying to capture for over a year, but Ukraine said its forces were holding on.
At least 37 people have died and five are missing after devastating floods and landslides hit central Vietnam, officials said Monday, as a new typhoon threatens to worsen the disaster.
U.S. President Donald Trump said he does not believe the United States is going to war with Venezuela despite growing tensions, though he suggested President Nicolás Maduro’s time in power may be nearing its end.
On October 21, 2025, an Azerbaijani Airlines (AZAL) Gulfstream G650, call sign 4K-ASG, touched down at Yerevan’s Zvartnots Airport. It was a historic event, commented many.
A powerful earthquake measuring 6.3 struck near the northern Afghan city of Mazar-e Sharif early on Monday, leaving at least 20 people dead, hundreds injured, and causing significant damage to the city’s famed Blue Mosque, authorities said, warning that the death toll was expected to rise.
A Romanian worker trapped for hours under the rubble of a partially collapsed medieval tower near the Colosseum in central Rome has died, Italian and Romanian authorities said on Tuesday.
A Ukrainian man suspected of coordinating the 2022 sabotage of the Nord Stream gas pipelines has begun a hunger strike, demanding respect for his fundamental rights in prison, his lawyer said on Tuesday.
Residents of northern Afghanistan began a clean-up operation on Tuesday after a powerful 6.3 magnitude earthquake left at least 20 dead and almost 1,000 injured.
Australia will provide households, including renters and those without solar panels, with at least three hours of free solar power daily under a new government scheme starting in 2026.
Start your day informed with AnewZ Morning Brief: here are the top news stories for 4 November, covering the latest developments you need to know.
You can download the AnewZ application from Play Store and the App Store.
What is your opinion on this topic?
Leave the first comment