Apple Lands In Legal Trouble As Authors Claim Apple Intelligence Was Trained On Their Books

Apple is the latest tech giant to be pulled into the growing wave of lawsuits over artificial intelligence and copyright. According to Reuters, two authors – Grady Hendrix and Jennifer Roberson – have accused the company of using their copyrighted books without permission to train its new AI system, Apple Intelligence.

The lawsuit, filed in the U.S., claims Apple used its web crawler, Applebot, to scrape data from so-called shadow libraries – online repositories known for hosting pirated books. According to the plaintiffs, these copyrighted works were then used to build the AI models that power Apple Intelligence, which is integrated across iPhones, iPads, and MacBooks.

“Apple scraped data with Applebot for nearly nine years before disclosing that it intended to train its AI systems on this scraped data,” the lawsuit alleges. The authors argue that their works were copied without consent, credit, or compensation and accuse Apple of intentionally avoiding licensing fees.

The filing further claims Apple’s approach mirrors a broader industry trend where AI companies rely on massive text datasets – some compiled from pirated material – to train large language models. The authors say Apple “did not attempt to pay” for the use of their books, describing the practice as a calculated move to avoid costs while profiting from their creative work.

Apple hasn’t yet commented publicly on the case. But the lawsuit adds to a growing list of similar legal battles in the AI world. Recently, Anthropic, the maker of the Claude chatbot, agreed to pay $1.5 billion to settle a class-action lawsuit from authors. OpenAI, meanwhile, is facing high-profile cases from The New York Times and other news organizations, while Microsoft, its biggest partner, has also been sued by writers over claims of copyright misuse in training its AI models.

This lawsuit could impact Apple heavily as the company markets its Apple Intelligence as a safe, user-friendly AI within its ecosystem. If the case proceeds, it may force Apple to rethink its AI training practices.

Meanwhile, Apple is hosting its Awe Dropping event tomorrow, September 9, when it launches the iPhone 17 series alongside the Apple Watch Ultra and Apple Watch Series 11.