3 Count: Hallucination Station

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1: Court Tosses Hallucinated Citation From Anthropic’s Defense in Copyright Infringement Case

First off today, Taryn Plumb at Computerworld reports that a federal judge has struck down a portion of Anthropic’s testimony after the company admitted to using AI to generate a false citation.

Anthropic, the makers of Claude, are facing copyright infringement lawsuits from various rightsholders. This includes a case filed by major music publishers, who accuse Anthropic of infringing their copyrights by training AI systems on songs they control. Anthropic has argued that AI training is protected as fair use.

However, in a recent filing, one of the sources Anthropic cited did not exist. Though they initially said it was a simple error, they later admitted to using Claude to format the citations and that the AI “hallucinated” the source. The court has now struck that portion of the defense, which cited work from a data scientist who said that AI output was rarely infringing.

2: Square Enix Settles Copyright Lawsuit With Mobile Studio HK Ten Tree

Next up today, Vikki Blake at GamesIndustry.biz reports that video game developer Square Enix has settled a lawsuit with mobile game publisher HK Ten Tree over allegations of copyright infringement.

According to the lawsuit, in 2022, Square and HK partnered to work on a game, Front Mission 2089: Borderscape. However, the game was cancelled that same year. In March this year, Square accused HK of using assets from that collaboration in a new game entitled Metal Storm.

This led to a lawsuit that, according to both sides, has now been settled. The terms of the settlement are not yet known, but the Metal Storm game remains available to play.

3: Disney Fends Off Copyright Lawsuit Over Ukulele-Playing Sea Turtle

Finally today, Blake Brittain at Reuters reports that a California judge has dismissed a lawsuit filed against Disney over a ukulele-playing turtle.

Artist Johnson Enos filed the lawsuit. He alleged that when Disney opened its Aulani resort in Hawaii, it featured a “strikingly similar” sea turtle to his earlier creation. He had further argued that he had met with Disney representatives about a possible collaboration and that several Disney employees attended shows featuring his character.

However, the judge determined that Disney had been working on their turtle before Enos’ depiction. Further, the judge found that the similarities between the characters, namely blue eyes and a love for music, were not protectable under copyright.

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