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Apple Faces Lawsuit Over Alleged Misuse of Copyrighted Books in AI Training

By  |  October 12, 2025

Apple is facing a new legal challenge in California federal court after two neuroscientists accused the tech giant of using their copyrighted works to train its artificial intelligence system, Apple Intelligence. According to Reuters, the lawsuit, filed on Thursday, claims that Apple relied on unauthorized “shadow libraries” of pirated books to build and refine its AI models.

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    The plaintiffs, Susana Martinez-Conde and Stephen Macknik, both professors at SUNY Downstate Health Sciences University in Brooklyn, allege that Apple used thousands of copyrighted books, including their own titles, to train the system. Their works, “Champions of Illusion: The Science Behind Mind-Boggling Images and Mystifying Brain Puzzles” and “Sleights of Mind: What the Neuroscience of Magic Reveals About Our Everyday Deceptions,” were among the materials allegedly included in the datasets.

    Per Reuters, the professors filed the lawsuit as a proposed class action, seeking monetary damages and a court order to prevent Apple from further using their works in AI training. The complaint also alleges that Apple’s AI system was trained using large-scale datasets containing pirated materials scraped from across the internet.

    Read more: Apple Under French Investigation Over Siri Data Practices

    The lawsuit notes that Apple Intelligence—a suite of AI-driven features built into iOS devices such as the iPhone and iPad—was a major factor in the company’s recent financial gains. “The day after Apple officially introduced Apple Intelligence, the company gained more than $200 billion in value: ‘the single most lucrative day in the history of the company,’” the complaint stated.

    According to Reuters, this case joins a growing list of lawsuits targeting major technology companies over the alleged misuse of copyrighted works in AI development. Similar suits have been filed against OpenAI, Microsoft, and Meta Platforms, as authors, news organizations, and music labels challenge how their content has been used to train generative AI systems. In August, Anthropic agreed to a $1.5 billion settlement with a group of authors over claims related to its AI chatbot Claude.

    Source: Reuters