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Writers Sue AI Company Antrophic For Copyright Infringement

by THEFUTURE.TEAM

August 22, 2024

Writers Sue AI Startup Antropphic for Copyright Infringement. The case was filed in California federal court on a complaint that the company used their books and hundreds of thousands of literary works to train the Claude chatbot.

KEY FACTS

The complaint was filed by three people—writers Andrea Bartz, Charles Graeber, and Kirk Wallace Johnson—who allege that Anthropic used pirated versions of their and other works to train Claude.
An Anthropic spokesman said the company was aware of the lawsuit but declined to comment further. The authors’ lawyer also refused to comment to Reuters.
In their complaint, the authors claim that Anthropic has “built a multi-billion dollar business by stealing hundreds of thousands of copyrighted books.

ACCENT

The lawsuit filed Monday is the second against Anthropic. In October of last year, a complaint by Universal Music accused the startup of committing systemic violations by using copyrighted song lyrics.

TANGENT

This isn’t the first time a tech company has come under fire from copyright laws over the way it trains its AI models. In March this year, Google was fined a whopping €250m for breaches of EU intellectual property rules after media outlets such as France Presse complained that the tech giant had been training its Gemini chatbot on media posts and news agencies without the companies being notified.

Visual artists are also suing tech companies that train their AI models on their works.

Toyota’s Global Production Declines For 10th Consecutive Month, Yet Sales Show Growth

by THEFUTURE.TEAM

December 26, 2024

Despite a consistent drop in global production, Toyota Motor reported an uptick in worldwide sales for the second month in a row, driven by strong demand in the United States and China.

In November 2024, Toyota’s global output fell to 869,230 vehicles, a 6.2% decrease compared to the same month the previous year. This decline was steeper than the 0.8% drop observed in October.

The company’s production in the U.S. dropped by 11.8%, showing slow recovery. However, the production of models like the Grand Highlander and Lexus TX SUV resumed after a four-month hiatus in late October.

In China, Toyota’s production decreased by 1.6%, a smaller drop compared to the previous month’s 9% decline. The company benefited from higher local sales of models such as the Granvia and Sienna minivans, as well as the electric sedan bZ3, developed jointly with BYD.

As Chinese automakers like BYD gain ground, Toyota has decided to establish an independent plant in Shanghai and plans to start manufacturing electric vehicles for its Lexus luxury brand by 2027, according to a report from Nikkei.

Production in Japan, which accounts for about a third of Toyota’s global output, was down 9.3% in November. This was partly due to a two-day production halt at the company’s Fujimatsu and Yoshiwara plants.

Despite the production challenges, Toyota saw a 1.7% increase in global sales, reaching 920,569 vehicles in November, setting a new record for the month. However, for the period from January to November 2024, global production fell by 5.2% year-over-year, totalling around 8.75 million vehicles. During the same period, global sales declined by 1.2%.

These figures include Toyota’s Lexus brand but exclude sales from its group companies, Hino and Daihatsu.