Author who coined ‘steampunk’ genre sues Anthropic

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The science fiction author who coined the term “steampunk” has sued AI company Anthropic, claiming that it downloaded pirated works to help train its large language models.

K.W. Jeter, international and New York Times bestselling author of science fiction stories and horror novels, joined dozens of other authors who say that Anthropic’s Claude large language model is built on original human-created works that were copied without permission or compensation.

“Anthropic trains these AI models by feeding them massive collections of text including countless copyrighted works totaling billions of words. As a result of this training, Anthropic’s AI models provide text-based responses to user queries in a manner intended to be human-like,” the lawsuit against Anthropic states.

During his career, Jeter has written three official novels that are sequels to the first Blade Runner film, along with several entries in the expanded Star Wars universe, two Star Trek: Deep Space Nine books and 15 original novels. Jeter also contributed to a collection of stories in SCP Redacted, a book based on the fan-written internet database of fictional, weird phenomena.

He’s best known, however, for coining the term “steampunk” in a letter to Locus magazine in 1987 while describing his own work and the novels of his friends in the burgeoning genre. “Steampunk” generally refers to a type of science fiction that tends to smash together futuristic steam-powered technology with 19th Century aesthetics.

In a statement provided through his attorney, Jeter said authors might not have known they could skip an earlier class action settlement with Anthropic and separately “fight for what’s really owed to them.”

“When Lord Byron spoke in the British House of Lords in 1812, he sympathized with the Luddites who’d been breaking into mills and smashing the machines that had taken their jobs,” Jeter told The Oklahoman. “It’s not likely we’ll be able to break into data centers and crack an iron bar against the cogs and wheels of Artificial Intelligence. That’s why I’m glad to be one of the plaintiffs in this lawsuit.”

The earlier class action settlement stemming from the Bartz v. Anthropic lawsuit earned authors about $3,000 per work. The lawsuit Jeter signed on with is asking the federal court in northern California to award plaintiffs $150,000 per work.

Anthropic has not yet responded in court to the lawsuit filed June 17, and the company did not answer a request for comment from The Oklahoman.

In recent years, the expansion of data centers and use of artificial intelligence LLMs to fabricate creative works has become a flashpoint in society. For many, the use of a machine to think like a human and mimic human talent triggers a visceral negative reaction.

“Steampunk is all about the human embrace of crazy machinery,” Jeter said. “There aren’t going to be any AI-punk novels; to paraphrase Johnny Thunders, you can’t put your arms around a data center.”