![\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/2a004af276d04d2a9e9362396b64064e4bc0db3c-1200x675.png\"\/)
<\/p>\nPete Furlong is a senior policy analyst and the lead policy researcher for the Center for Humane Technology.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
PARIS, FRANCE – MAY 22, 2024: Anthropic co-founder and CEO Dario Amodei attends the Viva Technology show at Parc des Expositions Porte de Versailles in Paris, France. (Photo by Chesnot\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n
At first glance, a $1.5 billion settlement<\/a> in a book authors\u2019 copyright lawsuit against Anthropic looks like a huge win for copyright holders and a blow to the AI company\u2019s business. Under the settlement, Anthropic will be forced<\/a> to delete millions of unlawfully captured books, and authors will receive compensation \u2014 seemingly resolving the issue in favor of the creators.<\/p>\n But the same week the settlement was first proposed, Anthropic raised<\/a> $13 billion at a $183 billion valuation. In effect, Anthropic\u2019s penalty for stealing the creative output and economic livelihood of thousands of authors amounted to less than 1 percent of the company\u2019s total value.<\/p>\n From this perspective, the settlement raises as many questions as it resolves. What do genuine consequences look like in an industry where astronomical investment dollars continue to flow? At what point do civil penalties become just another cost of doing business?<\/p>\n Lawsuits are piling up against AI companies, with high-profile suits alleging copyright violations<\/a>, data privacy issues<\/a>, and even wrongful death<\/a>. Some have been successfully litigated, but to date, companies have mostly responded with perfunctory product changes and the occasional large payout.<\/p>\n These settlement amounts can be attention-grabbing, no doubt, and create a sense that accountability has been achieved. But they pale in comparison to AI companies\u2019 astonishing (and growing) scale and influence. Investors know this and see these companies following a familiar tech playbook.<\/p>\n Recall Facebook\u2019s record-breaking $5 billion fine from the FTC<\/a> in 2019. Facebook\u2019s stock price actually increased<\/a> after the fine\u2019s announcement, as investors breathed a sigh of relief at what they saw as a manageable penalty, given the fine constituted just one-tenth<\/a> of the company\u2019s annual revenue. The fine dominated the news cycle for about two weeks, and then Facebook returned, more or less, to business as usual. Today\u2019s AI companies likely view billion-dollar settlements or penalties the same way\u2014as little more than a speed bump on the road to AGI.<\/p>\n Our Content delivered to your inbox.<\/p>\n Join our newsletter on issues and ideas at the intersection of tech & democracy<\/p>\n Thank you!<\/p>\n You have successfully joined our subscriber list.<\/p>\n In the initial hearing to approve the settlement, Judge William Alsup acknowledged this reality<\/a> in the Anthropic case. He postponed approval, noting that when Anthropic pays that $1.5 billion settlement, \u201cthey\u2019re going to get the relief in the form of a clean bill of health going forward,\u201d and that the company would no longer be \u201cat risk of being sued by somebody else on the very same thing.\u201d<\/p>\n Even the courts recognize that financial fines and settlements are failing to change incentives in the AI industry. And when the leading AI companies aren\u2019t defending themselves against legal claims, they\u2019re going on the offensive, pouring money into political and lobbying arenas. Despite framing<\/a> themselves as research labs in pursuit of superhuman intelligence, leading AI figures across the board have become overwhelmingly concerned with advocating against any form of meaningful accountability in their industry.<\/p>\n Andreessen Horowitz and OpenAI President Greg Brockman joined forces to found and fund the new \u201cLeading the Future<\/a>\u201d political action committee, with support from Perlexity AI and Palantir\u2019s Joe Lonsdale. Meanwhile, Meta launched<\/a> its own California PAC, as well as a nationwide Super PAC, in order to fund \u201clight touch\u201d regulatory approaches and support industry-friendly candidates at the state level. All told, Silicon Valley leaders are putting their lobbying dollars to work to push against the growing consensus that we need common-sense accountability measures for AI harms.<\/p>\n OpenAI and others are also stockpiling lobbyists in California<\/a> and across the country. The fundamental objective for most of this lobbying is the avoidance of accountability \u2014 and the freedom to develop AI products on the industry\u2019s terms, not society\u2019s.<\/p>\n AI companies want a regulatory system where \u201cmoving fast and breaking things\u201d is not only accepted but encouraged, and where their relentless pursuit of intimate data and conversation-harvesting is neither questioned nor stopped. This was clear in the lobbying effort around the federal \u201cmoratorium<\/a>\u201d on state AI laws last summer, when AI companies advocated for a \u201ctemporary pause\u201d on enforcement of state-level AI regulations for ten years, without a federal plan for regulation in its place. It was evident when Sam Altman sat in front of lawmakers, calling for AI regulations<\/a>, while lobbying behind the scenes<\/a> for their demise. And it remains clear in the ongoing efforts to lobby for reduced liability, even as AI companies face continued investigations and litigation for harms.<\/p>\n In this system, high-dollar settlement checks become a smokescreen \u2014 a cynical nod toward justice that provides cover for big tech to keep influencing policy behind closed doors and entrench their dominant position.<\/p>\n Without genuine accountability, successful lawsuits against AI companies become Pyrrhic victories. They amount to micro-successes and macro-failures that do nothing to compel AI companies to do better, design more safely, or prioritize the people using their products.<\/p>\n With the Anthropic settlement approved, checks will be cut. There may be one last round of headlines. But the company\u2019s AI products will persist, its underlying business model will remain unchanged, and while Anthropic may pay out $1.5 billion, society will continue to bear the costs.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Pete Furlong is a senior policy analyst and the lead policy researcher for the Center for Humane Technology.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":209172,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[45],"tags":[182,181,507,74],"class_list":{"0":"post-209171","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-artificial-intelligence","8":"tag-ai","9":"tag-artificial-intelligence","10":"tag-artificialintelligence","11":"tag-technology"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/209171","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=209171"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/209171\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/209172"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=209171"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=209171"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=209171"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}