Alsup had dealt the case a mixed ruling in June, finding that training AI chatbots on copyrighted books wasn’t illegal but that Anthropic wrongfully acquired millions of books through pirate websites to help improve its Claude chatbot. The proposed settlement would pay authors and publishers about $3,000 for each of the books covered by the agreement. Justin Nelson, an attorney for the authors, told Alsup that about 465,000 books are on the list of works pirated by Anthropic. Authors Guild CEO Mary Rasenberger sat alongside Pallante during Monday’s hearing and also was asked to discuss the settlement. Alsup made it clear, though, that he was leery about the settlement and warned he may decide to let the case go to trial.