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• Claude seems to be a music fan.
• Sony Music and Warner Chappell sued Anthropic on Friday.
• The music companies said Anthropic trained its Claude AI models on stolen, copyrighted works.

Sony Music and Warner Chappell want Anthropic to pay up.

The publishing companies filed a lawsuit against Anthropic in a Northern California district court on Friday. Anthropic cofounders Dario Amodei and Benjamin Mann were also named in the filing.

“Defendants Anthropic and its founders Dario Amodei and Benjamin Mann have conducted a brazen campaign of illegally torrenting, scraping, and downloading copyrighted works on a massive scale in order to develop, operate, and reap enormous profits from Anthropic’s ‘Claude’ series of artificial intelligence (‘AI’) models,” the companies said in the complaint.

Sony Music Publishing and Warner Chappell Music said Anthropic collected “thousands upon thousands” of copyrighted songs, including 80s anthem “Eye of the Tiger,” Marvin Gaye’s “Ain’t No Mountain High Enough,” Mariah Carey’s “All I Want for Christmas is You,” and Taylor Swift’s “Paper Rings.”

In the lawsuit, the publishing companies said Anthropic has pirated their copyrighted works through a range of methods, including two digital archives, Library Genesis and Pirate Library Mirror. In June 2025, a judge ruled that Anthropic downloaded over 7 million pirated books to train Claude.

“Among the many millions of books that Defendants torrented from these illegal pirate websites were books containing the lyrics and sheet music to hundreds or more of Music Publishers’ copyrighted musical compositions, identified in Exhibit A. Those works include ‘Livin’ On a Prayer,’ ‘September,’ ‘Great Balls of Fire,’ ‘Ramblin’ Man,’ and ‘Hallelujah,'” the lawsuit says.

As a result, Claude models generate identical or near-identical copies of the copyrighted work in their responses to users, the companies alleged. In the lawsuit, the companies said training Claude on copyrighted content allows it to produce AI-generated lyrics that will ultimately compete with human-made songs.

Sony Music and Warner Chappell requested a jury trial. They’re seeking statutory damages from Anthropic, including up to $150,000 for each composition it used to train Claude.

“Even the most revolutionary of technologies must develop within the bounds of the law, and Anthropic’s Claude models are no different,” the companies said in the complaint.

The AI industry has been targeted by a slew of copyright lawsuits since large language models like Claude and ChatGPT began to transform society.

Tech companies need troves of data to train their AI models, and go to great lengths to acquire it. Most recently, historians and archivists have accused AI companies of acquiring large numbers of antique books and feeding them into their LLMs, destroying them in the process.

Last September, Anthropic agreed to pay over $1.5 billion to authors to settle a class-action lawsuit related to pirated works. OpenAI, too, has faced several copyright lawsuits in recent years, including one from The New York Times and another from Encyclopedia Britannica.

• Javoris Hollingsworth had a tenured position teaching organic chemistry.
• During the pandemic, he and his wife started “Gracie’s Corner” for their own kids.
• Two years after launching, he resigned from teaching to work on the show full-time.

This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Javoris Hollingsworth and Arlene Hollingsworth, founders of Gracie’s Corner. It has been edited for length and clarity.

My wife and I started Gracie’s Corner out of necessity. We were both working as professors during the pandemic, and we were using every resource we had to keep our three kids occupied.

One of those resources was YouTube. But I noticed, there weren’t many characters who looked like our kids. In such a diverse world, it’s important that everyone feels seen.

I started working with my daughter Graceyn, who is 13 now, to create a fun, educational show with Black characters.

My wife’s private practice helped fund the show

At first, it was slow. That first year, we were just getting our grounding. I would write songs that Graceyn sang, recording them in a closet in our house. Our videos had like 100 views.

My wife was also a professor at the time and had a private practice as a psychologist. She took on more clients to help pay for Gracie’s Corner, and we also pulled from savings to make videos. We were hoping that we would be able to pay the production costs at some point.

Money wasn’t my primary driver; this was really a passion project. Still, I also wanted to feel like we weren’t investing our money into this black hole.

I left my professor position after going viral

The second year, in 2022, one of our videos went viral. That’s when things really started taking off. In the spring of 2022, I resigned from my tenure position to work on Gracie’s Corner. My wife videoed the moment when I left my office for the last time. It was momentous. I thought I would retire from academia, working my way up, and that would be my life story.

Leaving the security of a tenured job was a somewhat tough decision. At the same time, the purpose I felt made it easier. As a professor, I have an impact in the classroom, but only on a handful of students in front of me. With Gracie’s Corner, I could have an impact on a global scale.

My days involve a little creativity and a lot of business

The creative side of the business comes easily to me. I write the songs, and we now have a team of animators who bring them to life. We record with Graceyn every other week because we want her to have a good balance between Gracie’s Corner and the rest of her life.

The business side is much more demanding. Most of my time is dedicated to building that up, because the business acumen is what keeps you moving. I’m meeting with partners and overseeing the construction of a recording studio and office space we’re building.

I hope to leave the business to my kids

Working in academia was never a job that would make a ton of money. Now that my wife and I have both left academia to work on Gracie’s Corner, we’re comfortable. We’ve been able to reinvest a lot back into the company to help it grow.

Every time our content reaches families in their living room, that’s success to me. A major moment was our first NAACP Image Award nomination for Outstanding Animated Series in 2023. We were nominated alongside Disney and all these major platforms. That was a “we made it” moment for me.

I want Gracie’s Corner to be Sesame Street 2.0. Our goal is that, 50 years from now, we’ve created something global that can be passed down to our kids. We want to have an impact not only with our show, but with our story itself: we’re the family who started an animation empire. Who would have ever thought?

• My grandparents had a complicated marriage, but remained together.
• When my grandmother developed cancer, the illness brought them closer than I’d ever seen.
• They died three months apart, at the exact same hour and minute.

My grandmother got ovarian cancer in her 70s. The initial sign came on New Year’s Eve, when Gram, who often said overeating was one of her greatest flaws, thought she had simply done that. She had eaten too much Chinese food, and that was why she threw up. Or so my grandmother reasoned.

Next came the weight loss. She’d struggled with her weight for most of her adult life, so the pounds falling off suddenly was concerning. She’d been a shining example of a healthy older woman until the cancer diagnosis.

Gramps, on the other hand, had health battles from birth. He was born with hydrocephalus, or water on the brain. Time after time, he faced health issues. He had back issues from the military and heart issues starting in his late 40s. He went out on permanent disability after his third heart attack in his 50s. He had heart disease, testicular cancer that he beat, and throat cancer that stole his voice. It also caused him to go into cardiac arrest long enough that we thought he would have brain damage. He did not. Gramps was never healthy, but always strong.

My grandfather was terrified of my grandmother’s diagnosis

They both were. Each in their own way. Both of my grandparents were strong-willed, built of the toughest resolve. They were hard workers who had been born to immigrants. They had each worked their way up in their respective fields and had shown me the value of an unwavering work ethic. Gramps went to work through almost anything. Used to battling one form of illness or another for most of his life, he still continued to move forward. Illness never caused any sort of weakness in his determination.

As strong as my grandfather was, when he found out my grandmother was sick, it terrified him. He wanted, and had always planned, to be the one to go first. He was the sick one. She was the rock, at least in terms of physical health. Because he had never planned to live without her, there were so many things he didn’t know how to do. The tasks of managing the house fell to my grandmother. When she discovered she had cancer, my grandfather was lost in so many ways.

Their marriage wasn’t easy

While their marriage had not always been easy, they had always loved each other. My grandmother, who had been married twice before, insisted the third time was the charm. Cliché, but true. Gram and Gramps shared a mutual love of socializing, trips, and outings on the wooden boat we owned. The weekends of my youth were filled with visits from their friends. They often flew off to tropical lands, without my brother and me.

Illness brought them together in a different way. It was a deeper connection, perhaps because they knew it would be the thing to take them from one another. Or maybe because they were sharing a new experience. Either way, they battled it together. Gram and Gramps learned to appreciate and love each other in a pure and infinite way.

While I’ve witnessed sickness pull people apart, for my grandparents, it strengthened their marriage. They lived in the present and left past slights behind. It was an unbelievable journey that I felt blessed to watch. I remember my aunt saying that illness had changed them, softened them. She was right. While Gram and Gramps’ bodies were weaker, illness had made them better versions of themselves.

They died months apart, but at the same time to the minute

When Gram went to a rehabilitation center for an extended period, Gramps’ health declined. He entered the hospital in July, and we got to spend his final hours with him. He died on July 7. Gram, one of the strongest women I knew, showed grace and fierce tenacity when he died. She brought us comfort by sharing a letter that she and Gramps wrote together about their wishes after death. I still have that letter.

Gram died three months later. Remarkably, it was at the exact hour and minute that my grandfather did. Their unfaltering devotion to each other, while battling illnesses that would end their lives, taught me what devotion really looks like.

It was remarkable to watch them fall in love all over again and let go of all the past wrongs. Until they got sick, I hadn’t thought much about the marriage vow, “In sickness and in health.” Through their renewed commitment in the hardest times of their marriage and their lives, I finally understood.

Marriage lasted beyond the initial phase of love and became something far greater — undying devotion until the very end.

• My family visited the Obama Presidential Center playground, and my kids, 6 and 9, had a blast.
• Located in Chicago’s Jackson Park, the play area serves up fun for kids of all ages and abilities.
• There’s lots to see and do, but not much shade for now.

When the Obama Presidential Center opened its doors earlier this summer, so many things caught my eye.

The 19.3-acre campus within Chicago’s Jackson Park is home to beautiful native gardens, contemporary art, and historical artifacts. Truly, all things I want to experience. But as a mom with two kids who usually have some serious energy to burn, I was also quite thrilled to see how extensive the playground is.

It’s one of the largest outdoor playgrounds my children, 6 and 9, have had the chance to explore. It’s split between two levels and offers a multitude of activities for kids of different ages and abilities.

Here’s what my family of four experienced during our visit on a cloudy summer evening.

The campus was well-marked and easy to navigate.

Located within Jackson Park on Chicago’s South Side. The playground sits just north of the entrance closest to the Home Court facility, a 60,000-square-foot athletic and event space.

The campus has lots of maps and directional signs throughout, making it easy to make your way around.

The fenced-in playground space felt secure.

The playground had two entrances, both of which were staffed by third-party security guards when we visited around 5 p.m. on a weekday.

My kids are old enough to know that if we visit a playspace, they need to stay within its walls or gates until I say otherwise, but knowing there is an additional set of eyes (and legs) to watch the littler children near these access points certainly offers some extra peace of mind.

There were multiple play spaces that catered to different ages.

Signs on display let visitors know that the play space called The Duck was designed for kids ages 2 to 5. The remaining spaces were designated for those ages 5 to 12. Though the two nest swings at the northernmost area were designated for “children of all ages.”

The play structures had a lot of whimsy.

The playground was filled with imaginative shapes and designs that offered plenty of inspiration. This area with a giant frog and a lily pad was part of The Duck space, which was geared to kids 3 to 5, but my 9-year-old daughter ran straight for it. I let her have some fun since there were no younger kids around at the time.

The area for younger kids had a sandbox.

The Duck play area also had a large sandbox. I appreciated this addition, as many of the parks near where I live in Westchester, NY, have been eliminating this classic element from their modern playground renovations.

There was also a fountain for water play off to one side of the sand area, but I asked my kids to try to stay clean on this particular visit.

There were multiple hydration stations in and around the playground.

Access to ice-cold water is a must, especially on a hot day. I appreciated that the playground had multiple hydration stations in and around it to refill water bottles or let my kids take a long sip from a fountain.

An added bonus: the fountains had great water pressure, so my kids didn’t need to get their mouths anywhere near the spout to get a drink.

Natural elements were mixed into the modern playspace.

There were multiple ways for children to get to and from the Climbing Forest area of the playground, including smooth ramps, a climbing option (of course), and a path that resembles a nature trail — the preferred route for my kids.

Slides connect the two levels of playspaces.

Two long slides, accessible by foot or wheel, connect the upper tree-themed play structures to the lower lagoon-themed play areas.

The slides are shaded by a canopy, which is nice since they are metal and would probably get fairly hot when the sun is out.

While we were visiting, an attendant was monitoring slide usage, but didn’t seem to be guiding the children or other visitors in any way.

Warning: these slides are fast. My son got off and said, “That was fast. Too fast.” But then he went down them three more times. My husband, who also took a turn, almost went over the side of one of them and certainly pulled something.

There’s more than meets the eye.

At first glance, this dragonfly-shaped climbing structure seemed like it might not offer much for my kids. The closer we got, the more we noticed that there was plenty to do in, on, and around it.

Strategically placed handgrips encouraged kids to climb on top, while suspended nets allowed them to rest within the insect’s body. It also housed a few great hide-and-seek spots.

Kids who love to climb and hang have multiple options.

Every time you turned a corner at this park, there was something new — and usually surprising — to play on. The structures seemed to cater to a wide range of ages, abilities, heights, and confidence levels.

Shade is hard to come by — for now.

Like the rest of the campus, the space is beautifully landscaped. There are pollinator-friendly plants everywhere you look and many, many trees that will offer shade — one day.

For now, most of the plantings are fairly young, so the playground is very exposed. Families visiting during peak sun hours should plan to have sunscreen and hats on hand.

A public restroom was close to the playground.

A clean, easily accessible restroom is a must-have for a primo playground. While not directly connected to the activity area, this lovely stone option was just a few minutes’ walk from the south entrance to the playground.

Those pushing strollers could avoid the stairs by walking a little further to get around them.

I was also told by a fellow parent that there are restrooms in the Home Court building, so those may be worth checking out if the building is open.

It can be tricky to keep an eye on your kids.

While I loved that the playground had multiple spaces, levels, and activities, these qualities could also be seen as a downside.

The bi-level design made it hard to keep an eye on multiple kids who wanted to explore different areas. If my kids were younger or the space was more crowded, I would definitely have been running around a lot more, trying to make sure they were staying safe and happy.

Caregivers looking after young kids will likely want to stick to one designated area at a time during the visit.

The area has a lot of seating.

Each play area was lined with benches and other seating options so that parents and caregivers could relax while the kids ran around.

There is also a smaller area with a few picnic tables for those looking to enjoy a meal or snack time while at the playground.

Nearby, prepared families can use the grills.

Adjacent to the playground, and just outside the Home Court basketball pavilion, are many more picnic tables along with a few communal grills.

No one was enjoying this space while we were there, but I can imagine it would be a lovely place to meet up with some friends.

The space is inclusive.

With the exception of the sandbox, the play spaces were suspended over either wood chips or rubber surfaces, which are popular in most modern parks. Though you may need to walk around to get where you are going, strollers, scooters, or wheelchairs could easily access both levels of the playground and its various structures.

There were only a handful of swings at the park, two of which could accommodate riders who require ADA-compliant equipment.

There are other notable places to visit within Jackson Park.

We ended up at the playground after a long day of exploring at the nearby Griffin Museum of Science and Industry, where my kids had a blast. The presidential center is just a quick (or longer, depending on your leg length) walk, about 10 minutes for us, south.

Wooded Island, also located within Jackson Park, is accessible by two pedestrian bridges and is worth a quick visit. If you enter on the north end, you’ll quickly be greeted by the entrance to the Garden of the Phoenix. My kids had a great time wandering along the one-way path in the Osaka garden, spotting some cool water birds and admiring the koi fish. We also saw not one, but two engagements take place in the picturesque spot in the short time that we were there.

• Texas Gov. Greg Abbott pushed back on claims that China is driving US data center opposition.
• Abbott said his data center pivot was driven by legitimate concerns from Texans.
• Researchers have questioned the impact of a Chinese social media campaign on the data center debate.

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott isn’t buying the Chinese psy-op theory.

In a Fox News interview on Friday, the Texas governor pushed back against the notion that China is influencing the data center debate in the United States.

“I haven’t done it because of anything said by China, I’ve done it by listening to and working with constituents and seeing real problems they’re facing in their communities,” Abbott said of his recent moratorium on data center construction in Texas.

“None of that has anything to do with China,” he added.

X said on Thursday that it uncovered a 200,000-strong Chinese bot farm and that a couple hundred of those accounts posted disparaging content about data centers “in a manner that could manipulate a legitimate debate about American AI and energy policy.”

The disclosure prompted a fresh wave of I-told-you-sos from the members of the tech industry, who say vast numbers of Americans are being duped by cheap, AI-produced Chinese propaganda, and that anti-data-center sentiment in the United States was, as a result, illegitimate.

What X didn’t disclose, said Darren Linvill, a researcher at Clemson University, is that many of those bots had zero engagement and were likely quickly deactivated by X before they could garner a following.

On Fox News on Friday, host Will Cain raised X’s disclosure and asked Abbott whether “real concerns” about data centers in the United States were “being driven by China.”

Abbott said that China is certainly attempting to influence data center sentiment, but added that his recent pivot against the compute factories was the result of legitimate concerns raised by Texans in communities where they’re being built.

“We know what the power demand was going to be for the state of Texas, which was five times the current ability to provide power,” Abbot said.

Once a staunch supporter of data center construction in Texas, Abbott has recently pivoted.

Abbott introduced new standards for AI data center projects in Texas, including directing the state’s utility commission and grid operator to protect residents from associated infrastructure costs. He also suggested a ban on data center development in rural Texas and said that projects must undergo an audit before moving forward.

Abbott said earlier this month that his administration had halted some 1,800 AI data center projects in the state.

AI data centers are an existential issue for AI companies like OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, Meta, and Microsoft, which rely on them to power their products.

All across the country, however, Americans are rallying to fight against AI data centers, which can cost billions to build and span hundreds of acres. Many are concerned about how the sprawling facilities will affect the environment, utility prices, water resources, and noise levels. Some just don’t like AI.

The effectiveness of any Chinese campaign, which has been pushed by right-wing commentators, tech bros, and Shark Tank investor Kevin O’Leary, who is developing a data center in Utah, was disputed by several researchers who study misinformation campaigns.

Samuel Woolley, a researcher at the University of Pittsburgh, said the only reports he’s seen about Chinese AI data center propaganda have come directly from Big Tech companies, which he said have a “vested interest” in data center development in the United States. X is owned by Elon Musk, whose companies need AI data centers to survive.

“We have to take research that’s potentially political with a pinch of salt,” he said.

• A former Twitter lawyer launched Twitter.now, a new rival to Elon Musk’s X.
• The platform allows users to set their own tolerance for false or harmful posts in their feeds.
• X sued Operation Bluebird, alleging the startup infringed its trademarks.

A former Twitter trademark lawyer has launched a social network with a familiar name.

Stephen Coates’ startup, Operation Bluebird, launched Twitter.now in early testing on Thursday. Coates, formerly Twitter’s head counsel for trademarks, domain names, and marketing, told Business Insider that the platform is experimenting with a twist on content moderation: Users, rather than the company’s central algorithm, will decide how much potentially false or harmful material reaches their feeds.

“We’re going to use the phrase ‘freedom of speech and not freedom of reach,'” Coates said. “That freedom allows you to express yourself in the manner you choose as long as it’s lawful, and that doesn’t always ensure that you’re going to get reach based on that content.”

Coates said that the new platform’s VERA AI system is designed to assess posts, verify claims, provide sources and context, and assign a trust score to content. A future version is aiming to let users choose a minimum score, filtering posts that fall below their preferred threshold.

Coates said that, for example, when a political leader makes false statements, a user could configure the platform to remove those claims from their feed without the platform banning the politician.

“We’re empowering those users to be able to decide what level of harmful or adult or untruthful content they want in their feed,” Coates said.

Coates summed up the idea colorfully: Twitter.now would permit someone to “scream obscenities at the children,” but give users tools to ensure “the children won’t hear it.”

Twitter.now is entering a market filled with would-be X rivals, all facing a moderation problem no social network has solved cleanly. Bluesky, seen as a major alternative to X, has faced its own moderation-related criticism. Many studies have also shown that engagement-driven algorithms reward outrage and sensationalism.

“It’s a grand experiment, and I don’t know if we have sights to be bigger than X,” Coates said. “But I think we want to build a better mousetrap and see if people will come.”

Since buying Twitter in 2022, Elon Musk has loosened some of the platform’s earlier moderation practices and reinstated previously banned users, including Donald Trump. Musk also announced a “general amnesty” for suspended accounts that had not broken the law or engaged in egregious spam, following a poll of users on the proposal.

The fight over who owns ‘Twitter’

Coates said that the startup’s core executive team has eight people, supplemented by contractors. For now, the service remains a limited web app with only a few hundred users. $20 buys a new user early access and a shot at claiming a preferred handle.

Coates left his position at Twitter in 2016 and spent the next few years as a senior counsel for Amazon.

A considerable trademark uncertainty, however, has been keeping Twitter.now off app stores. X sued Operation Bluebird last year, accusing it of trademark and copyright infringement, and asked the District Court for the District of Delaware to block the launch. Operation Bluebird has argued that X abandoned its trademarks, including “Twitter” and “tweet,” after Musk renamed the platform.

An oral finding by Colm F. Connolly, the chief judge of the District Court for the District of Delaware, at an April hearing said that X did not provide sufficient evidence to show rights over the bird logo and “tweet” mark, but the court has not issued a written decision on X’s request for an injunction.

“I am going to tell you I’m going to make one finding, which is I have not found that X has adduced credible evidence of use of ‘tweet or the bird logo,” said Connolly. “And I mean, I gave it every opportunity.”

“And I’m undecided about use of ‘Twitter.’ That’s what I think I would benefit from further briefing on,” Connolly added.

X didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.