Google Faces Class-Action Lawsuit Over Allegedly Misusing Internet Data To Train Its AI Systems

This case adds to the growing number of lawsuits filed against companies in the thriving AI industry over alleged misuse of personal data and copyrighted materials.

A proposed class action lawsuit was filed against Google, accusing the company of misusing personal information and copyrighted material to train its artificial intelligence systems. The complaint, initiated by eight individuals aiming to represent millions of internet users and copyright holders, alleges that Google's unauthorised scraping of data from websites violated their privacy and property rights.

The plaintiffs' attorney, Ryan Clarkson, emphasised that Google does not have ownership over the internet or the creative works, expressions, and personal photographs shared by individuals online. Clarkson's law firm previously filed a similar lawsuit against Microsoft-backed OpenAI in June, requesting anonymity for the plaintiffs due to reported violent threats received by others involved in similar litigation.

According to the lawsuit filed on Tuesday, Google may be liable for at least $5 billion. In response, Google's general counsel, Halimah DeLaine Prado, clarified that the company has long been transparent about its use of data from public sources, such as openly available information and public datasets, to responsibly train AI models for services like Google Translate. Prado stated that American law supports the utilisation of public information to create new beneficial applications, and Google looks forward to refuting the baseless claims.

This case adds to the growing number of lawsuits filed against companies in the thriving AI industry over alleged misuse of personal data, copyrighted materials such as books, visual art, and source code for training AI systems. In this particular lawsuit, the eight plaintiffs (identified by their initials) argue that Google misused their content posted on social media platforms and shared through Google platforms to train its chatbot Bard and other generative AI systems.

The content cited in the lawsuit includes photographs from dating websites, Spotify playlists, and TikTok videos. One of the plaintiffs, referred to as J.L., a best-selling Texan author and investigative journalist, claims that Google copied her entire book to train Bard.

The lawsuit seeks a court order requiring Google to allow internet users to opt out of the company's "illicit data collection" and to either delete the existing data or provide "fair compensation" to the owners of the data.