Adobe Sued for Allegedly Using Authors’ Books to Train AI

Adobe has become the latest tech company to face legal scrutiny over the use of artificial intelligence. 

According to a report by TechCrunch and Reuters, a proposed class-action lawsuit filed in California claims that Adobe’s AI tools were trained using copyrighted works without the authors’ permission. 

The complaint, filed by author Elizabeth Lyon, alleges that Adobe incorporated pirated copies of books, including her own, into the training data for its SlimLM small language models.

Allegations of Misuse

The lawsuit centers on the claim that Adobe misused books to train SlimLM, a series of small language models designed to assist users with document-related tasks on mobile devices. 

Lyon, known for instructional books on marketing novels, asserts that her works were included in the datasets Adobe used.

According to the complaint, SlimLM was pre-trained on the SlimPajama-627B dataset, which is itself a processed subset of the RedPajama dataset. RedPajama reportedly contains copies of the Books3 dataset, a collection of over 191,000 books frequently cited in legal disputes over AI training data. 

Lyon’s filing states that the use of her books in SlimLM’s development constitutes copyright infringement and seeks monetary damages on behalf of a proposed class of authors whose work was allegedly used without authorization.

This lawsuit against Adobe is the first of its kind targeting the company and forms part of a wave of legal actions by authors against tech companies over AI training. 

Dozens of lawsuits have been filed against other AI-focused firms, including OpenAI and Anthropic. In one high-profile case, Anthropic settled a class-action lawsuit for $1.5 billion, marking the largest settlement in a copyright case to date.

For writers and other content creators, this lawsuit signals the potential risks of AI systems being trained on copyrighted works without permission. If Adobe is found liable, it may set a precedent affecting how AI companies source and process content.

For users of AI tools, the case may also influence access to certain AI services or change how these tools are marketed. While AI can provide efficiencies and creative assistance, the legal disputes highlight that ethical and legal considerations remain central to their development.

[Photo via Adobe]

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