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A federal judge on Thursday approved a $1.5 billion settlement between artificial intelligence company Anthropic and authors who allege nearly half a million books had been illegally pirated to train chatbots.U.S. District Judge William Alsup issued the preliminary approval in San Francisco federal court Thursday after the two sides worked to address his concerns about the settlement, which will pay authors and publishers about $3,000 for each of the books covered by the agreement. It does not apply to future works.“This is a fair settlement,” Alsup said, though he added that distributing it to all parties will be “complicated.” About 465,000 books are on the list of works pirated by Anthropic, according to Justin Nelson, an attorney for the authors.“We have some of the best lawyers in America in this courtroom and if anyone can do it, you can,” Alsup said.The Association of American Publishers called the settlement a “major step in the right direction in holding AI developers accountable for reckless and unabashed infringement.”“Anthropic is hardly a special case when it comes to infringement. Every other major AI developer has trained their models on the backs of authors and publishers, and many have sourced those works from the most notorious infringing sites in the world,” said Maria A. Pallante, president and CEO of the publisher group.San Francisco-based Anthropic said it is pleased with the preliminary approval.“The decision will allow us to focus on developing safe AI systems that help people and organizations extend their capabilities, advance scientific discovery, and solve complex problems. As we’ve consistently maintained, the court’s landmark June ruling that AI training constitutes transformative fair use remains intact. This settlement simply resolves narrow claims about how certain materials were obtained,” said Aparna Sridhar, deputy general counsel at Anthropic.The Authors Guild, meanwhile, said the settlement “marks a milestone in authors’ fights against AI companies’ theft of their works. It sends a clear signal to AI companies that infringement of authors’ rights comes at a steep price and will undoubtedly push AI companies towards acquiring the books they want legally, through licensing.”A Monday filing sought to convince the judge that the parties have set up a system designed to get out robust notice to all authors and publishers covered by the agreement, ensuring they get their cut of the pot if they want to sign off on the settlement or opt out to protect their legal rights moving forward.They also tried to assure him that the author and publishers group that cobbled the deal together are not doing any “back room” dealings that would hurt lesser-known authors.Alsup’s main concern centered on how the claims process will be handled in an effort to ensure everyone eligible knows about it so the authors don’t “get the shaft.” He had set a September 22 deadline for submitting a claims form for him to review before Thursday’s hearing to review the settlement again.The judge had raised worries about two big groups connected to the case the Authors Guild and the Association of American Publishers working “behind the scenes” in ways that could pressure some authors to accept the settlement without fully understanding it.Attorneys for the authors said in Monday’s filing they believe the settlement will result in a high claims rate, respects existing contracts and is “consistent with due process” and the court’s guidance.Alsup had dealt the case a mixed ruling in June, finding that training AI chatbots on copyrighted books wasn’t illegal but that Anthropic wrongfully acquired millions of books through pirate websites to help improve its Claude chatbot.Bestselling thriller novelist Andrea Bartz, who sued Anthropic with two other authors last year, said in a court declaration ahead of the hearing that she strongly supports the settlement and will work to explain its significance to fellow writers.“Together, authors and publishers are sending a message to AI companies: You are not above the law, and our intellectual property isn’t yours for the taking,” she wrote.Alsup also said in the courtroom Thursday that he plans to step down from the bench by the end of the year. President Bill Clinton nominated him for the federal bench in 1999.AP Technology Writer Matt O’Brien contributed to this story from Providence, Rhode Island. Barbara Ortutay, AP Technology Writer
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E-Commerce
President Donald Trump said Thursday that he will put import taxes of 100% on pharmaceutical drugs, 50% on kitchen cabinets and bathroom vanities, 30% on upholstered furniture and 25% on heavy trucks starting on Oct. 1.The posts on his social media site showed that Trump’s devotion to tariffs did not end with the trade frameworks and import taxes that were launched in August, a reflection of the president’s confidence that taxes will help to reduce the government’s budget deficit while increasing domestic manufacturing.While Trump did not provide a legal justification for the tariffs, he appeared to stretch the bounds of his role as commander-in-chief by stating on Truth Social that the taxes on imported kitchen cabinets and sofas were needed “for National Security and other reasons.”Under the Trade Expansion Act of 1962, the administration launched a Section 232 investigation in April about the impacts on national security from pharmaceutical drug and truck imports. The Commerce Department launched a 232 investigation into timber and lumber in March, though it’s unclear whether the furniture tariffs stem from that.The tariffs are another dose of uncertainty for the U.S. economy with a solid stock market but a weakening outlook for jobs and elevated inflation. These new taxes on imports could pass through to consumers in the form of higher prices and dampen hiring, a process that economic data suggests is already underway.“We have begun to see goods prices showing through into higher inflation,” Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell warned in a recent news conference, adding that higher costs for goods account for “most” or potentially “all” of the increase in inflation levels this year.The president has pressured Powell to resign, arguing that the Fed should cut its benchmark interest rates more aggressively because inflation is no longer a concern. Fed officials have stayed cautious on rate cuts because of the uncertainty created by tariffs.Trump said on Truth Social that the pharmaceutical tariffs would not apply to companies that are building manufacturing plants in the United States, which he defined as either “breaking ground” or being “under construction.” It was unclear how the tariffs would apply to companies that already have factories in the U.S.In 2024, America imported nearly $233 billion in pharmaceutical and medicinal products, according to the Census Bureau. The prospect of prices doubling for some medicines could send shock waves to voters as health care expenses, as well as the costs of Medicare and Medicaid, potentially increase.The pharmaceutical drug announcement was shocking as Trump has previously suggested that tariffs would be phased in over time so that companies had time to build factories and relocate production. On CNBC in August, Trump said he would start by charging a “small tariff” on pharmaceuticals and raise the rate over a year or more to 150% and even 250%.According to the White House, the threat of tariffs earlier this year contributed to many major pharmaceutical companies, including Johnson & Johnson, AstraZeneca, Roche, Bristol Myers Squibb and Eli Lilly, among others, to announce investments in U.S. production.Pascal Chan, vice president for strategic policy and supply chains at the Canadian Chamber of Commerce, warned that the tariffs could harm Americans’ health with “immediate price hikes, strained insurance systems, hospital shortages, and the real risk of patients rationing or foregoing essential medicines.”The new tariffs on cabinetry could further increase the costs for homebuilders at a time when many people seeking to buy a house feel priced out by the mix of housing shortages and high mortgage rates. The National Association of Realtors on Thursday said there were signs of price pressures easing as sales listings increased 11.7% in August from a year ago, but the median price for an existing home was $422,600.Trump said that foreign-made heavy trucks and parts are hurting domestic producers that need to be defended.“Large Truck Company Manufacturers, such as Peterbilt, Kenworth, Freightliner, Mack Trucks, and others, will be protected from the onslaught of outside interruptions,” Trump posted.Trump has long maintained that tariffs are the key to forcing companies to invest more in domestic factories. He has dismissed fears that importers would simply pass along much of the cost of the taxes to consumers and businesses in the form of higher prices.His broader country-by-country tariffs relied on declaring an economic emergency based on a 1977 law, a drastic tax hike that two federal courts said exceeded Trump’s authority as president. The Supreme Court is set to hear the case in November.The president continues to claim that inflation is no longer a challenge for the U.S. economy, despite evidence to the contrary. The consumer price index has increased 2.9% over the past 12 months, up from an annual pace of 2.3% in April, when Trump first launched a sweeping set of import taxes.Nor is there evidence that the tariffs are creating factory jobs or more construction of manufacturing facilities. Since April, the Bureau of Labor Statistics has reported that manufacturers cut 42,000 jobs and builders have downsized by 8,000.“There’s no inflation,” Trump told reporters Thursday. “We’re having unbelievable success.”Still, Trump also acknowledged that his tariffs against China had hurt American farmers, who lost out on sales of soybeans. The president separately promised on Thursday to divert tariff revenues to the farmers hurt by the conflict, just as he did during his first term in 2018 and 2019 when his tariffs led to retaliation against the agricultural sector. Josh Boak, Associated Press
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E-Commerce
This week, President Donald Trump and Robert F. Kennedy Jr., his secretary of health and human services, suggested a link between Tylenol use during pregnancy and autism. The claim, which has been widely debunked by experts and is not backed by medical science, became instant social media fodder. Trump and Kennedys announcement included a graphic featuring the words Autism Announcement, splashed across a blue background. It quickly became repurposed as a meme by many in the Autism community. How it feels telling the group chat I dont want to eat at the restaurant they planned because I dont like the texture of the food they serve, one X user posted. When Im on a date and they ask me about my hobbies, another wrote. Summing up the weeks online discourse, one put: “The Tylenol memes have been incredible. What a gift Trump gave us.” In his address, Trump suggested that pregnant people in America should instead tough it out rather than resort to taking the common pain reliever. Unsurprisingly, many pregnant people did not welcome his unsolicited advice and instead responded to his comments by filming themselves popping pills in defiance. I have a list of things I would be worried about if I were pregnant now in the US but taking Tylenol for my fever wouldnt be one of them, reads the caption to one video. Dear RFK. kindly go away. Sincerely, a 36-week pregnant person with terrible hip pain, reads another. To avoid stoking the moral panic thats since circulated online, its worth mentioning many of the videos dont even show pregnant women taking the drug; if they do, they are taking the recommended dosage. Most have since been taken down, likely due to backlash. Many conservatives failed to see the funny side. Democrats are now chugging bottles of Tylenol on TikTok, Calley Means, Kennedys health adviser and a key figure in the MAHA movement, claimed in an X post viewed over five million times. If Trump said that oxygen was good, I am convinced there are people out there who would suffocate themselves, Riley Gaines, the conservative activist known for campaigning against trans women in college sports, said in a video. While the reactions and memes are fun, the problem of health misinformation being peddled across social media is a growing problem. As Forbes reported this week, citing data from the platform analytics company Zelf, TikTok videos about acetaminophen, vaccines, and autism received more than 100 million views in the 48 hours following Trumps announcement. The four most popular of those videos picked up more than 33 million cumulative views. None of the videos included the crucial context that medical science does not support Trumps allegations. As one X user joked, “I’d like to congratulate Tylenol on their upcoming multimillion-dollar lawsuit settlement.”
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E-Commerce
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