Artificial Intelligence: The Rapidly Evolving Landscape Of AI Class Action Litigation Has Become A Wild, Wild World

Artificial intelligence (AI) has been finding its way into business for some time, but that trend was dramatically accelerated with the arrival of generative AI (Gen AI), which can create new content on its own. The release of a relatively easy-to-use version of Gen AI in late 2022 was followed by the rapid adoption of the technology—and not long after, by the arrival of class action lawsuits centered on AI.

To date, these AI-related class actions have primarily involved various content creators suing companies that create and sell Gen AI tools for copyright infringement. "These lawsuits cover the input and output sides of AI," saysWarrington Parker, managing partner of Crowell & Moring's San Francisco office. "On the input side, visual artists, musicians, and authors are alleging that the use of their works to train AI is infringing on their copyrights. On the output side, they are saying that AI can essentially recreate their original work." For example,