Reddit suing AI startup Anthropic for breach of contract, using data without authority

SAN FRANCISCO (KRON) — Social media company Reddit has filed a lawsuit against artificial intelligence startup Anthropic for breach of contract. The lawsuit, which was filed in San Francisco on Wednesday, accused the AI company of scraping Reddit user comments to train its chatbot “Claude.”

The suit alleges that Anthropic has been training its AI models using the personal data of Reddit users without their consent. Reddit alleges it has been harmed by the unauthorized use of its content and user data.

In the lawsuit, Reddit refers to Anthropic as a “late-blooming artificial intelligence company that bills itself as the white knight of the AI industry.”

“It is anything but,” the lawsuit states before going on to allege that the AI startup is “intentionally trained on the personal data of Reddit users without ever requesting their consent.” The lawsuit also alleges that despite Anthropic saying it had blocked its bots from accessing Reddit, the bots have hit Reddit’s servers over 100,000 times since July of 2024.

Reddit also alleges that unlike its competitors, Anthropic “has refused to agree to respect Reddit users’ basic privacy rights.” The suit further alleges that Anthropic has trained its AI “on one of the most robust online discussion platforms in the world — Reddit.com.”

Reddit has entered into formal partnership with some of Anthropic’s competitors, namely Google and OpenAI. This partnership, the suit explains, allows them to use public Reddit content after agreeing to Reddit’s licensing terms.

In the lawsuit, Reddit said it is seeking compensation for damages and to prohibit Anthropic from using any Reddit data or content for its commercial offerings or profit. The lawsuit is demanding a jury trial.

KRON4 reached out to Anthropic and received the following response:

“We disagree with Reddit’s claims and will defend ourselves vigorously.”

Reddit and Anthropic both have their headquarters in San Francisco.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.