Authors and publishers sue Google, alleging it used books to train Gemini AI without permission

Hachette Book Group, Cengage Learning, Elsevier and novelist Scott Turow sued Google in federal court in New York, alleging the company unlawfully copied books and other materials to train its Gemini AI models. The complaint says Google used texts acquired for Google Books and scraped content from across the web, including paywalled and pirated sources, without permission—conduct the plaintiffs claim falls outside existing agreements. The filing cites internal Google assessments warning that using books for training was “highly problematic” and could expose the company to massive penalties. Google didn’t comment. The case arrives amid a broader wave of copyright litigation targeting AI developers, including suits by the Authors Guild and The New York Times against OpenAI, and music-industry actions against Anthropic and AI music startups. A separate case against Meta over book-based training has tested the boundaries of fair use. Courts are also weighing who bears liability when users coax infringing outputs from AI systems—an unresolved question that could shape the industry’s legal risk.

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