Reddit has filed a lawsuit against Anthropic, accusing the artificial intelligence company of using the platform's content to train its models without permission, Bloomberg reports.
Reddit filed the lawsuit on Wednesday, May 5, in San Francisco Superior Court. In its filing, the company claims that Anthropic attempted to access the platform's data more than 100,000 times between July 2024 and May 2025.
Back in August 2024, Reddit CEO Steve Hutman made a statement that companies that want to use the platform's content to train AI, including Anthropic, would have to pay for it. Previously, such agreements were signed by Google and OpenAI.
Reddit says unauthorized commercial use of the platform's content violates its rules and exploits users' data without their consent. Anthropic denies this claim and says it is prepared to defend itself in court.
Reddit's lawsuit also says that Anthropic's emphasis on safety and responsibility are just "marketing gimmicks" and that the startup is "positioning itself as the white knight of the AI industry," even though it is not.
"We believe in an open internet — that doesn’t mean open for commercial exploitation. We will not tolerate profit-seeking entities like Anthropic commercially exploiting Reddit content for billions of dollars without any return for redditors or respect for their privacy," said Reddit's general counsel Ben Lee.
Lee also notes that the two companies have already had several conversations trying to reach a deal, which until recently were optimistic. He also notes that a lawsuit is a last resort to force Anthropic back to the negotiating table. Reddit, in particular, wants to reach an agreement out of court.
As a reminder, Reddit is also working on its own AI technologies. After going public on the New York Stock Exchange, the company acquired AI startup Memorable AI to help with advertising, and later introduced its own AI search on the site.