Google faces another AI training lawsuit from major publishers

A group of publishers and authors have filed a class action lawsuit against Google, accusing the company of using their copyrighted works to train its AI platform Gemini without permission. The plaintiffs allege that Google intentionally removed or changed copyright information on these works to conceal that Gemini was trained on stolen materials. This lawsuit is one of many filed against AI companies by copyright holders, though some early court decisions in California have ruled that using copyrighted works for AI training qualifies as fair use under current U.S. copyright law. The case is notable because the publishers have a prior relationship with Google through programs like Google Books, where they provided works specifically for limited purposes like making books searchable, not for AI training.