Google class action claims tech giant stealing data of ‘hundreds of millions’ to pursue AI profit

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Google class action overview: 

• Who: Plaintiffs identified only by initials as J.L., C.B., K.S., P.M., N.G., R.F., J.D. and G.R. filed a class action lawsuit against Alphabet Inc., Google Deepmind and Google LLC. 
• Why: Google collected information across the internet without permission or copyright to train its artificial intelligence product, Bard, according to the Google AI lawsuit.
• Where: The Google class action was filed in federal court in California.

A group of eight individuals identified by only their initials filed a class action lawsuit against Alphabet, Inc., Google Deepmind and Google LLC about data that was used to train Google’s artificial intelligence (AI) products, including Bard.

Google allegedly spent years scraping data from all corners of the internet without permission and then used that data to train the AI to develop human-like responses.

“As part of its theft of personal data, Google illegally accessed restricted, subscription-based websites to take the content of millions without permission and infringed at least 200 million materials explicitly protected by copyright, including previously stolen property from websites known for pirated collections of books and other creative works,” the Google class action says. “Without this mass theft of private and copyrighted information belonging to real people, communicated to unique communities for specific purposes, and targeting specific audiences, many of Google’s AI products including Bard would not exist.”

The class is asking for Google to stop production of the AI products until class members are fairly compensated for using their data as well as awarding damages and attorney’s fees.

Google data collection used in AI products that put ‘world at peril,’ lawsuit claims

The private and copyrighted information was not placed on the internet to profit Google “while putting the world at peril with untested and volatile AI products,” the Google class action claims.

Google also could have purchased the data instead of just taking it, the lawsuit claims.

Google has faced a number of legal challenges.

IN 2022, company agreed to a $23 million settlement to resolve claims it shared search information with third-party websites and companies without user consent. That settlement is now open and accepting claims.

Do you believe Google took your personal information to train its AI? Let us know in the comments.

The plaintiffs are represented by Ryan J. Clarkson, Yana Hart, Tiara Avaness, Valter Malkhasyan, Tracey Cowan and Timothy Giordano of Clarkson Law Firm PC.

The Google AI class action lawsuit is J.L., et al. v. Alphabet Inc., et al., Case No. 3:23-cv-3440, in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California.

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