Music publishers including Sony Music Publishing and Warner Chappell Music have sued Anthropic, alleging the AI company illegally used copyrighted songs to train Claude. The publishers are seeking damages of up to $150,000 per work, along with other remedies. Anthropic has rejected the allegations and said it will defend itself in court.

The suit is likely the opening salvo in what promises to be a long battle over intellectual property.

“One of the largest and most blatant ongoing thefts of intellectual property in history.”