Google Sued Over Alleged Web-Scraping to Train Its AI Products

Alphabet's Google is facing a proposed classaction lawsuit alleging the misuse of personal information and copyrightedmaterial to train its AI systems. The complaint, filed by eight individuals inSan Francisco federal court, claims that Google's unauthorized scraping of datafrom websites violated privacy and property rights. The plaintiffs argue thatGoogle does not have ownership over the internet, creative works, or personalexpressions shared online. The lawsuit also requests that the court allow theplaintiffs to remain anonymous due to threats received by individuals involvedin similar cases. The lawsuit estimates that Google could owe at least $5billion. Google's general counsel stated that the company uses public informationin a responsible manner and is confident in refuting the claims. This lawsuitadds to a series of similar cases against companies in the AI industry,including Meta Platforms, Microsoft, and OpenAI, over alleged misuse ofpersonal data and copyrighted material.

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