US judge preliminarily approves $1.5 billion Anthropic copyright settlement

US District Judge William Alsup called the proposed class-action settlement fair during a hearing on Thursday, according to a statement from the authors' representatives. Alsup had declined to approve the settlement earlier this month and asked the parties to answer several questions. Alsup will decide whether to give the settlement his final approval after notifying affected authors and giving them a chance to file claims. Plaintiffs Andrea Bartz, Charles Graeber and Kirk Wallace Johnson said in a statement that Alsup's decision "brings us one step closer to real accountability for Anthropic and puts all AI companies on notice they can’t shortcut the law or override creators’ rights.” Maria Pallante, the president of the publishing-industry trade group the Association of American...