Image by Raph Olazo, from Unsplash
Reddit Sues Anthropic For Scraping Platform Over 100,000 Times
- Written by Kiara Fabbri Former Tech News Writer
- Fact-Checked by Sarah Frazier Former Content Manager
Reddit has filed a lawsuit against Anthropic, the AI company behind the Claude chatbot, accusing it of scraping Reddit’s platform more than 100,000 times since July 2024—even after claiming it had stopped doing so in May.
In a rush? Here are the quick facts:
- Reddit says scraped content is essential for training AI like Claude.
- Anthropic faces multiple lawsuits over alleged copyright infringement.
- Reddit previously licensed data to Google for $60 million annually.
The complaint , filed Wednesday in San Francisco Superior Court, calls Anthropic “a late-blooming AI company that bills itself as the white knight of the AI industry,” and alleges that “it is anything but.” Reddit argues that Anthropic’s public image of ethical AI development doesn’t match its actions.
“This case is about the two faces of Anthropic,” the filing reads, accusing the company of ignoring the rules to profit from Reddit content. Anthropic has not yet responded to the lawsuit.
Reddit states that Anthropic used its data without a licensing agreement while violating its public content policy, as reported by The Wall Street Journal . The company stated that it attempted to establish a formal agreement with Anthropic but the company refused to accept the deal while OpenAI and Google had already signed paid licensing agreements.
In a statement to The Verge , Reddit’s chief legal officer Ben Lee stressed the value of the platform’s user-generated discussions: “Reddit’s humanity is uniquely valuable in a world flattened by AI. Now more than ever, people are seeking authentic human-to-human conversation.”
“Reddit hosts nearly 20 years of rich, human discussion on virtually every topic imaginable,” Lee added. “These conversations don’t happen anywhere else—and they’re central to training language models like Claude.”
The lawsuit follows Reddit’s February 2024 deal with Google to license its data for AI training, reportedly worth $60 million a year. The platform has made it clear it wants companies to pay for access to its content, as reported by The Verge.
The case highlights a growing wave of legal challenges against AI firms accused of scraping content without compensation or consent.
Additionally, Reddit has also entered the AI race with its own AI product, Reddit Answers , which uses the platform’s massive archive of human conversations to respond to user queries. The lawsuit against Anthropic not only seeks accountability but also reflects the broader competitive struggle to dominate the future of artificial intelligence.
The rush of companies to develop more intelligent models has led to licensing disputes which expose a fundamental struggle for control over AI data and potential dominance in the AI market.
Image by Freepik
Researchers Say Smartphones Now Exploit Us Like Parasites
- Written by Kiara Fabbri Former Tech News Writer
- Fact-Checked by Sarah Frazier Former Content Manager
Smartphones may appear sleek and helpful, but a new study suggests they behave more like parasites than tools.
In a rush? Here are the quick facts:
- Phones exploit attention and data for tech companies’ profit.
- The relationship evolved from mutualism to parasitism.
- Phones harm users’ sleep, memory, and relationships.
Australian researchers Rachael L. Brown and Rob Brooks claim that phones have transformed from useful devices into systems which exploit our time, attention, and personal data for the advantage of tech companies and advertisers.
The Australasian Journal of Philosophy published their research, which compares smartphones to parasites, and demonstrates how these devices exploit hosts for their own benefit at the expense of host well-being.
This shift mirrors patterns in nature, where relationships between species can change over time. According to the research the human-smartphone relationship has transformed from a mutually beneficial partnership into an exploitative one.
People understand the negative consequences, yet finding a way to break free proves challenging. The researchers observe that people now depend on smartphones for their daily needs, and in turn, weakens their ability to fight against manipulative design features.
The authors describe this situation as an unbalanced fight because tech companies maintain control through their superior understanding of data and knowledge.
The research shows that individual attempts to take back control are insufficient to solve the problem. Instead, large-scale solutions are required. The authors support implementing stronger restrictions on addictive app features, together with stricter regulations for personal data collection and sale practices.
