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Letter to Judge Alsup in Bartz et al v. Anthropic PBC (Class Action Authors Lawsuit – No. 3:24-CV-05417)

Last week, a reference to my work was included in the court filing for a proposed class action lawsuit against Anthropic AI, the company that makes Claude – an AI with which I’ve had an on-again/off-again love/hate relationship over the past year or so while working on my AI Lore books.

The case is titled Bartz et al v. Anthropic PBC, Case Number 3:24-CV-05417. Even though I am not actually a party to the case, the lawyers for the Plaintiffs for some reason saw fit to include me in an attempt to “prove” what I think is a fairly thin and not well supported rhetorical point.

It is my position that the statements included about my work in this filing are at turns false and misleading, and grossly mischaracterize what I’m actually doing as an artist who uses AI to realize their creative vision.

Consequently, this morning I am sending by registered mail a letter to Judge Alsup who is presiding over the proposed class action lawsuit. I am requesting that my letter and corrections regarding this mischaracterization be added to the public record of the court’s docket for the case in order to clear my good name. I also notified the lawyers for the Plaintiffs yesterday of their apparent failure to perform adequate diligence in a signed pleading, and shared both documents with a few members of the press.

I am sharing the letter to Judge Alsup here publicly for future reference [PDF], and to encourage other artists experimenting with AI to push back on all the insults and outrage that is getting flung around about these things online. Artists need to be free to explore and innovate and express themselves without fear of inappropriate and unnecessary reprisals.

As far as I’m concerned, what I’ve done and continue to do with generative AI tools is entirely non-controversial: I’ve merely used these tools as they were designed and offered to the public. No more, no less. Doing that, and being enthusiastic about finding a way to build the future we actually want – with or without AI tools – does not legitimize me as a target in my opinion.

If you’re a journalist looking for a quote or interview on this topic, you can email me through the contact form at the bottom of this page.

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