I Sued Anthropic, and the Unthinkable Happened Sept. 29, 2025

By Andrea Bartz 

Ms. Bartz is a novelist and one of the named plaintiffs in the lawsuit Bartz v. Anthropic. In August 2023, alone in my studio apartment, I learned that my most precious possessions had been stolen.

Key Points

• Andrea Bartz discovered her novels were used without permission to train AI models, prompting her to lead a class-action lawsuit against Anthropic. 
• The lawsuit resulted in a historic $1.5 billion copyright settlement, sending a message to Big Tech that they are not above the law. 
• Bartz criticizes the settlement as insufficient, highlighting the damages per work and disputing the judge's "fair use" ruling regarding AI training. 
• Anthropic agreed to destroy its trove of pirated books, setting a precedent for other AI copyright cases involving diverse creators. 
• The settlement is seen as a stress test for laws in the AI era and a call for society to hold Big Tech accountable. 
• Bartz emphasizes the importance of protecting intellectual property and resisting unchecked AI expansion.