Mealey's Artificial Intelligence : Mealey's : Legal News & Analysis

Mealey's Artificial Intelligence

June 13, 2025
Judge Says New York Times’ AI Use, Licensing, Irrelevant To Copyright Suit

NEW YORK — The New York Times Co. and other news entities’ use of artificial intelligence, stances on the technology and licensing deals are not relevant to their copyright claims against Microsoft Corp. and others over the alleged use of news articles used to train AI, a federal judge in New York said in turning away objections to a magistrate judge’s ruling on a motion to compel.
June 12, 2025
Movie, TV Titans Claim Midjourney AI Is ‘Bootlegging Business Model’

LOS ANGELES — Disney Enterprises Inc., Marvel Characters Inc. and other movie companies behind some of the most well-known movies and television shows of all time sued artificial intelligence company Midjourney Inc. on June 11, calling the company “the quintessential copyright free-rider and a bottomless pit of plagiarism.”
June 11, 2025
Arkansas Seeks To Amend Attorney Rules In Wake Of Artificial Intelligence

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. — The Arkansas Supreme Court published proposed amendments to the rules of professional conduct governing the use of artificial intelligence by attorneys after recommendations were made by a pair of groups studying the new technology.
June 09, 2025
Reddit: Anthropic Copied User Data For AI Training Without Permission

SAN FRANCISCO — While billing itself as the ethical artificial intelligence company, Anthropic PBC trains its large language model on Reddit Inc. users’ data without consent and in violation of specific directives not to use the data, the social media company alleges in a complaint in California state court for breach of contract and violation of California’s unfair competition law.
June 06, 2025
County, Lawyer Avoid Sanction In AI-Faked Cite Tax Case

BUFFALO, Minn. — A lawyer for a Minnesota county avoided sanctions for submitting a motion for summary judgment that included five fake artificial intelligence-created cites, but the tax court said it would refer the matter to the Minnesota Lawyers Professional Responsibility Board for further review and deny the motion.
June 06, 2025
Judge Strikes Pro Se Filings, Says AI-Faked Cites ‘Far Too Common’

RICHMOND, Va. — In a situation becoming “far too common,” a defendant submitted five filings containing 42 fake cites likely generated by the artificial intelligence she previously admitted she uses to write briefs, a federal judge in Virginia said in striking the documents after noting that as a pro se party, the woman was likely immune from monetary sanctions.
June 04, 2025
‘No Code’ Company Builder.ai Files For Chapter 7 Bankruptcy

WILMINGTON, Del. — Microsoft Corp.-backed Builder.ai, which professed to use artificial intelligence to allow users to create apps without writing any code and was once valued at $1.5 billion, has filed a voluntary petition for Chapter 7 bankruptcy.
June 04, 2025
Judge Tosses Cybersquatting Claim From Trademark Row Over ‘Perplexity’ Name

SAN FRANCISCO — A California federal judge dismissed a cybersquatting claim against Perplexity AI Inc. in a trademark infringement dispute brought against it by a smaller data analytics company, finding that the plaintiff company failed to establish a required showing of bad faith use of the mark on the artificial intelligence company’s part.
June 04, 2025
Law Firm Says AI-Faked Cites Was One-Off Event, Urges Minimal Sanctions

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. — A comprehensive search of 40 dockets and 2,400 legal citations spread out over 330 court filings found no additional instances of fabricated cites, the Butler Snow law firm told a federal judge in Alabama in a supplemental response to a show cause order suggesting that sanctions the court imposes be minimal.
June 03, 2025
Minnesota Officials Defend Political Deepfake Law From Speech Challenge

MINNEAPOLIS — A law creating civil and criminal penalties for political deepfakes applies only where a reasonable viewer would be deceived and does not apply to a man’s artificial intelligence-created parody videos, two elected officials tell the Eighth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals in defending a judge’s decision not to enjoin the law.
June 03, 2025
Court: Lawyer Must Cover Costs Of Responding To Petition With AI Fake Citations

SALT LAKE CITY — A Utah appeals panel ordered an attorney to reimburse respondents for time spent responding to a petition that included fake artificial intelligence-created citations and donate $1,000 after the attorney told the panel during a hearing on an order to show cause that a law clerk used ChatGPT to draft the petition.
May 28, 2025
COMMENTARY: AI-Driven Over-Naming In Asbestos Litigation: Legislative Protections Are Needed

By Mary Margaret Gay and Sarah Beth Jones
June 02, 2025
Nurse Testing Material Firm Opposes AI Copyright, Trademark Dismissal

LOS ANGELES — A nursing test preparation company opposing summary judgment tells a federal judge in California that copyright covers its presentation of factual data and that the sale and use of its materials to train artificial intelligence constitutes infringement.
May 30, 2025
AI Fake Cite Sanction Reduced To $6,000 From $15,000 By Judge

INDIANAPOLIS — An Indiana federal judge partially adopted a magistrate judge’s recommendation that the court impose sanctions against an attorney for submitting briefing with artificial intelligence-created fake citations, reducing the sanction to $6,000 from the recommended $15,000 while rejecting the attorney’s claim that the reputational damage he incurred as a result of using the fake cite mooted any need for further proceedings.
May 30, 2025
Illinois Law Regulating AI Use In Therapy Awaits Governor’s Signature

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. — A bill prohibiting the use of artificial intelligence chatbots in a mental health therapy setting heads to the Illinois governor after an amended version was unanimously passed by an Illinois House of Representatives committee on May 29.
May 29, 2025
Judge Details Stay, Interlocutory Appeal In Legal Summary AI Copyright Suit

WILMINGTON, Del. — Because sufficient questions exist about the originality of Thomson Reuters Enterprise Centre GMBH headnotes and whether a competitor’s use of them to train artificial intelligence constitutes fair use, an interlocutory appeal and stay of the case will advance the litigation and potentially foreclose the need for a costly trial, a federal judge in Delaware said while reiterating that he believes his rulings properly allowed the case to proceed to trial.
May 29, 2025
OpenAI: No Reason To Reconsider Denying Leave To Amend For News Outlets

NEW YORK — News outlets’ motion for reconsideration of a ruling denying them leave to amend their artificial intelligence copyright suit is procedurally improper, and because the outlets never demonstrated that ChatGPT produced their copyrighted works, the motion lacks any foundation, OpenAI Inc. entities told a federal judge in New York in an opposition brief.
May 28, 2025
No Federal Jurisdiction Where Arbitrator Allegedly Used AI, Game Company Says

SAN DIEGO — A man had no authority to file an amended petition challenging an arbitration award, and a court cannot “look through” a petition to hypothetical attorney fees that would be awarded if he prevails on his antitrust claims, a video game company tells a federal judge in California in a reply brief challenging jurisdiction over the case.
May 27, 2025
Magistrate Judge Partially Strikes Expert After AI Mangles Study Citation

SAN JOSE, Calif. — A federal magistrate judge in California on May 23 struck a portion of an expert report offered by Anthropic PBC containing errors introduced by its Claude artificial intelligence and ordered the company to produce 5 million prompt-output pairs evenly divided between pre-suit and post-suit periods.
May 27, 2025
OpenAI: ChatGPT Output Preservation ‘Unprecedented’ Privacy Violation

SAN FRANCISCO — Requiring preservation of ChatGPT outputs users wish to delete simply so news plaintiffs in a copyright suit can secure a litigation advantage constitutes an “unprecedented” privacy violation and sets a “dangerous precedent,” OpenAI entities tell a federal court in California in a May 23 supplemental opposition after a magistrate judge ordered the preservation and denied a motion for reconsideration.
May 23, 2025
OpenAI Escapes Radio Host’s Claim That ChatGPT Defamed Him

ATLANTA — No reasonable person reading false ChatGPT outputs linking a radio host to embezzlement and fraud claims would interpret them as actual facts given the record in the case and in light of the warnings issued with the program, but even if they did, as a public figure the host could not meet the actual malice standard, a judge in Georgia said in granting OpenAI LLC summary judgment on defamation claims.
May 22, 2025
SAG-AFTRA Files Charge Against Epic Games-‘Owned’ LLC Over Darth Vader AI Use

LOS ANGELES — Screen Actors Guild and the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA) filed a National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) charge against Llama Productions LLC, a company it says is owned by Epic Games Inc., accusing Llama of not bargaining in good faith by choosing “to replace the work of human performers with [artificial intelligence] A.I. technology without providing notice to the union” regarding the A.I. use of the voice of actor James Earl Jones for Star Wars character, Darth Vader, in Epic’s video game, Fortnite.
May 22, 2025
Judge: Product Suit Over Character.AI Proceeds, Speech Protections Don’t Apply

ORLANDO, Fla. — An artificial intelligence chatbot constitutes a product under Florida law, its outputs are not protected speech and Google LLC’s level of involvement in the technology imputes liability to it, a federal judge said in a May 21 opinion denying a motion to dismiss a mother’s action alleging that her son’s use of Character.AI led to suicide.
May 21, 2025
Arbitrator’s Possible AI Use Behind Motion To Vacate Video Game Award

SAN DIEGO — A man moved to vacate a take-nothing arbitration award in his antitrust and warranty case against gaming giant Valve Corp., saying the arbitrator outsourced his decision-making to artificial intelligence. Valve moved to dismiss the petition, arguing that the court lacks federal jurisdiction.
May 21, 2025
Hawaii Court Sanctions Attorney $100 For Fake Cites

HONOLULU — A Hawaii appellate court imposed a $100 sanction for the filing of a motion crafted by a per diem attorney containing two pin cites pointing to the wrong case and a third that didn’t appear to exist at all.