Reddit sues Anthropic
Training AI eats up data. A lot of data. Much of this data comes from publicly accessible websites. A recent lawsuit filed by Reddit (user-led social media platform) against the AI startup Anthropic shows that public does not always mean free-for-all. Reddit accuses Anthropic of using its platform without permission and illegally using the personal data of its users.
The lawsuit was filed on June 4, 2025 in the Superior Court of California in San Francisco and relates to several serious allegations. Reddit alleges that Anthropic, which developed an AI chatbot called Claude, trained its models with data for which no consent was obtained from the respective users. The lawsuit states that Anthropic "willfully" collected the personal data of Reddit users and that the company used it unfairly, resulting in significant damages to Reddit.
Reddit clarifies that other major companies such as OpenAI and Google have formal license agreements with them to regulate access to public content. Reddit itself has begun blocking various search engines and their crawling services if they do not agree to an appropriate license. These measures are intended to ensure that the content on Reddit is only used by authorized parties and that the privacy of users remains protected. In the lawsuit, Reddit criticizes Anthropic for disregarding the rules intended to ensure responsible handling of user data. They emphasize that their own community should not be misused for commercial purposes and that it is important that such legal disputes are resolved in order to protect the rights of users and promote fair competition in the field of AI.
Overall, this case illustrates how critical the issue of user data is in the development of AI systems. The results of this lawsuit could have implications not only for Reddit and Anthropic, but also far-reaching implications for the industry as a whole, as it raises questions of privacy and responsible use of data.
Sources:
Andreas Knobloch
