Reddit Sues Anthropic, Alleging Unlawful Use of Data

Social media platform Reddit reportedly sued artificial intelligence (AI) startup Anthropic on Wednesday (June 4), alleging that the company unlawfully used Reddit’s data to train its AI models.

The lawsuit alleges that Anthropic used the personal data of Reddit users without their consent, and that Reddit has been harmed by the company’s unauthorized commercial use of its content, CNBC reported Wednesday (June 4).

It seeks damages and an order that Anthropic follow Reddit’s contractual and legal obligations, according to the report.

The complaint says that Reddit’s user agreement includes rules about how its data can be used and that other AI companies respect those rules, per the report.

The filing says that Reddit has never allowed its platform and its users to be “appropriated by commercial actors seeking to create billion-dollar enterprises and offering nothing in return to Reddit and its users,” according to the report.

An Anthropic spokesperson told CNBC, “We disagree with Reddit’s claims and will defend ourselves vigorously.”

Reddit has agreements with OpenAI and Google that allow those companies to use its data to train their AI models, according to the report. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman is a former board member of Reddit and has a $1 billion stake in the company, per the report.

When Reddit announced in May 2024 that OpenAI would be using the social media platform’s content to train its AI models, Reddit said the collaboration would help the AI models better understand and showcase the platform’s content.

“Reddit has become one of the internet’s largest open archives of authentic, relevant and always up to date human conversations about anything and everything,” Reddit Co-Founder and CEO Steve Huffman said at the time in a blog post. “Including it in ChatGPT upholds our belief in a connected internet, helps people find more of what they’re looking for, and helps new audiences find community on Reddit.”

When Reddit announced a similar collaboration with Google in February 2024, it said in a blog post that the partnership “does not change Reddit’s Data API Terms or Developer Terms, which state content accessed through Reddit’s Data API cannot be used for commercial purposes without Reddit’s approval.”