Apple has been hit with a proposed class-action lawsuit in a California federal court, filed by two prominent neuroscientists who accuse the tech giant of misusing thousands of copyrighted books, including their own, to train its new Apple Intelligence artificial intelligence model.
The plaintiffs, Susana Martinez-Conde and Stephen Macknik, professors at SUNY Downstate Health Sciences University, claim in the complaint filed on Thursday that Apple utilized illegal “shadow libraries” of pirated content scraped from the internet to develop its AI suite. Their books, including Champions of Illusion and Sleights of Mind, were allegedly used without authorization.
The lawsuit highlights the immense financial stakes, noting that Apple’s market value rose by over $200 billion—”the single most lucrative day in the history of the company”—the day after Apple Intelligence was officially introduced.
This case adds to a growing wave of high-stakes litigation against major tech companies like OpenAI, Microsoft, and Meta Platforms, all facing accusations from authors and copyright holders over the unauthorized use of their intellectual property to train generative AI systems. The professors are seeking unspecified monetary damages and a court order to halt Apple’s continued misuse of their copyrighted work. A separate group of authors filed a similar suit against Apple just last month.
Spokespeople for Apple did not immediately respond to requests for comment.