SA author wins share of $1,5-billion in AI case
Six of the seasoned author’s books had been illegally used by a USA artificial intelligence company.
This digital and technological innovation has many benefits, but people have shared their reservations.
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As writers in the US have made it very clear, AI will not be replacing them anytime soon.
Within only two years, AI has become more than just a script-writing tool; it's become part of our daily lives.
Quickly, there were questions and discourse surrounding the ethics of AI.
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Should it be regulated? If so, how? Where does one draw the line with copyright infringement?
Some AI services have already faced lawsuits regarding using source material without permission.
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In 2024, after long, intense negotiations, the EU approved the world's first comprehensive rules to govern AI, especially powerful systems like OpenAI's ChatGPT.
According to Jacaranda FM News, the EU's law, the 'AI Act,' has stricter rules for general-purpose AI systems such as ChatGPT and takes a risk-based approach to the technology. Companies must comply with the EU law by 2026.
The EU is not the only one that has started taking precautions.
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AI has been a source of grave concern when generating content featuring prominent figures, music, and other content that draws from external sources.
In another landmark AI case, authors claimed that a U.S. startup, Anthropic, relied on pirated e-books downloaded from shadow libraries, such as LibGen, to train its Claude large language models (LLMs).
The Bartz vs. Anthropic case, filed by Andrea Bartz, Charles Graeber, and Kirk Wallace Johnson, has reached a settlement, resulting in a group of writers being compensated for their work.
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Renowned South African author Zakes Mda is one of the writers included in this case.
The authors whose US publications were used by the company to train AI models will receive a share of $1,5-billion (approximately R26 billion).
In a post on X, Mda revealed that he initially only thought one of his books was being used, but he discovered six of his novels were being used in this way.
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This includes 'The Heart of Redness', 'The Madonna of Excelsior' and 'The Whale Caller'.
He also clarified that this settlement will not make him filthy rich.
Don't be deceived by the billions. They are not all coming to me. They are shared by many writers in the USA. But at least, however little, I will be compensated for each of the books that were used.
He also mentions that he wanted to share this information with his followers regarding AI, copyright, and South African procedure.
Read his full post here:
You may remember an article in a South African newspaper [I don't remember which one, but they did interview me then] a few months back reporting that my books and those of Nadine Gordimer were used to train ChatGPT without our permission. Some of you who are bo-tsebanyane…
— Zakes Mda (@ZakesMda) October 6, 2025
The Bartz vs Anthropic case
Anthropic is backed by Amazon and Alphabet (the parent company of Google), and according to Judge William Alsup, it holds more than seven million pirated books in a "central library".
Judge Alsup issued a summary judgment ruling in June 2025.
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It found that Anthropic's use of lawfully acquired books for AI training was "transformative”, making it protected by fair use under US law.
However, he also ruled that Anthropic's creation and retention of a "central library" containing pirated works was not transformative and resulted in copyright infringement.
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This is what the Order on Fair Use, signed by Judge William Alsup, on the case determined: "An artificial intelligence firm downloaded for free millions of copyrighted books in digital form from pirate sites on the internet. The firm also purchased copyrighted books (some overlapping with those acquired from the pirate sites), tore off the bindings, scanned every page, and stored them in digitized, searchable files. All the foregoing was done to amass a central library of ‘all the books in the world’ to retain ‘forever.'
Anthropic kept the library copies in place as a permanent, general-purpose resource even after deciding it would not use certain copies to train LLMs or would never use them again to do so. All of Anthropic’s copying was without plaintiffs’ authorization."
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