Anthropic Used 21 Books by Korean Authors, Including Han Kang and Kim Youngha, for Unauthorized AI Training
The institute informs affected authors of infringement and relief options
Compensation expected to be about $3,000 per work
Anthropic, a U.S. artificial intelligence (AI) company, appears to have used English-language editions of books by Korean authors, including Han Kang and Hwang Sok-yong, without authorization.
On October 17, the Literature Translation Institute of Korea notified the authors after finding 21 titles by Korean writers on a list of books eligible for compensation posted on a website related to the Anthropic lawsuit settlement. The institute informed the authors of the relevant details and explained options for seeking relief and claiming compensation.
Anthropic was previously embroiled in a class-action lawsuit over allegations that it illegally downloaded copyrighted works and used them to train its AI chatbot, Claude. A U.S. court found that approximately 500,000 copyrighted works had been infringed, and the lawsuit was settled in July this year, with Anthropic agreeing to pay a total of $1.5 billion (about 2 trillion won). The court ruled that Anthropic's use of copyrighted books to train its AI models constituted fair use. However, it found that downloading books from pirated websites and storing them separately constituted copyright infringement.
Compensation is expected to amount to about $3,000 (about 4 million won) per work, and Korean authors may also receive compensation if they join the claims process.
According to the institute, the works Anthropic downloaded without authorization include Kim Ae-ran's My Brilliant Life; Kim Young-ha's The Empire of Light and three other titles; Kim Soom's One Person; Shin Kyung-sook's Please Look After Mom and two other titles; Han Kang's Human Acts and two other titles; Hwang Sun-mi's The Hen Who Dreamed She Could Fly; and Hwang Sok-yong's The Guest. The institute plans to support legal measures and other efforts to help the authors receive fair compensation.
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Meanwhile, on October 16, the Korean Publishers Association issued an appeal regarding reports that overseas AI companies were making large-scale purchases of books believed to be intended for training. The association stressed, "Without books, there can be no AI. Yet the people who created the books do not even know when, how, or which AI has used their work. Because they cannot find out, they cannot ask questions, refuse permission, or demand fair compensation." It went on to call for transparency about the sources and use of works used to train AI, as well as a compensation system that protects creators' rights.
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