Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei is making an attempt to keep away from being deposed in a copyright lawsuit towards OpenAI, in line with new courtroom filings. In response, legal professionals for the plaintiff — the Authors Guild — have filed a movement to compel testimony from Amodei and his Anthropic co-founder, Benjamin Mann.
Authors Guild’s legal professionals declare that Amodei and Mann, who each used to work at OpenAI, possess “distinctive, firsthand information of knowledge extremely related to this case.”
The Authors Guild — which is representing writers like John Grisham, George R.R. Martin, and Sylvia Day within the swimsuit — despatched subpoenas to Amodei and Mann in 2024 searching for testimony in addition to communications from their time at OpenAI. The lawsuit was filed in September 2023 within the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York.
Lawyers for the Authors Guild, Amodei, and Mann didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark. Anthropic additionally didn’t reply.
The movement and the subpoenas, which haven’t been beforehand reported, present that a number of the many copyright lawsuits that allege OpenAI skilled ChatGPT on stolen materials are heating up. Discovery within the Authors Guild case, which was filed in 2023, is meant to wrap up in April. Meanwhile, OpenAI is reportedly in talks to lift round $40 billion.
Amodei and Mann initially agreed in June 2024 to take a seat for seven-hour depositions after receiving the subpoenas, in line with the movement. They have additionally ready a cache of textual content, WhatsApp, and Facebook Messenger messages as a part of the invention course of.
But legal professionals representing the Anthropic co-founders delayed the testimony close to the tip of 2024 in hopes of coordinating the depositions with testimony slated for an additional lawsuit towards OpenAI. (That lawsuit is a mixed case involving three separate actions introduced by comic Sarah Silverman, writer Michael Chabon, and writer Paul Tremblay.)
Now it appears legal professionals for Amodei and Mann are attempting to get out of the depositions altogether.
On January 16, 2025, legal professionals for Amodei and Mann instructed the Authors Guild that Amodei “will not be out there for deposition,” in line with an electronic mail connected to the movement.
Lawyers for Amodei — who two months in the past sat for a five-hour interview with podcaster Lex Fridman — argued the CEO’s schedule was too demanding, one thing that’s known as the “apex doctrine.”
Mann has additionally tried to keep away from giving testimony within the Authors Guild case except it may be coordinated with a deposition within the consolidated lawsuit and restricted to 4 hours. His legal professionals cite that he has two younger kids and a member of the family “who obtained a critical medical analysis.” His authorized workforce additionally instructed the Authors Guild on January 16 that Mann would solely sit for a deposition if the guild agreed to not depose Amodei, the emails present.
Mann has since filed a movement to quash the subpoena and deposition within the consolidated OpenAI case.
