A prominent sign marks the entrance to Google’s Berlin office, reflecting a momentous legal win for the tech giant.
June 6 (Reuters) – Google (GOOGL.O) successfully convinced a federal judge in San Francisco to dismiss a proposed class action accusing the company of misusing personal and copyrighted data to train its artificial intelligence systems, including its chatbot Bard.
In a concise two-page order, U.S. District Judge Araceli Martinez-Olguin indicated her decision to dismiss the case, referencing concerns raised by another judge in a similar lawsuit involving OpenAI and Microsoft (MSFT.O). Last month, U.S. District Judge Vince Chhabria criticized the OpenAI complaint for its “swaths of unnecessary and distracting allegations,” ultimately dismissing it while allowing for a more streamlined refiling.
Judge Martinez-Olguin echoed this sentiment, advising the plaintiffs against Google to refine and focus their complaint. She emphasized that the amended lawsuit should be more succinct and clearly articulate the plaintiffs’ legal theories.
The lawsuit, initially filed in July, accused Google of exploiting content from social media and information shared on its platforms to train AI systems without proper authorization. This case is part of a broader wave of legal challenges against tech companies over the unconsented use of various content types, including books, articles, and visual art, for AI training purposes.
Google defended its practices in October, asserting that utilizing publicly available data is essential for the development of AI systems. The company argued that the lawsuit threatened the foundational principles of generative AI.
The case is listed as J.L. v. Alphabet Inc, U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, No. 3:23-cv-03440.
Neither Ryan Clarkson of the Clarkson Law Firm, representing the plaintiffs, nor Google representatives responded immediately to requests for comments on the ruling.
