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Social media platform Reddit has sued the artificial intelligence company Anthropic, alleging that it is illegally “scraping” the comments of Reddit users to train its chatbot Claude.

Reddit claims that Anthropic has used automated bots to access Reddit’s content despite being asked not to do so, and “intentionally trained on the personal data of Reddit users without ever requesting their consent.”

Anthropic didn’t immediately return a request for comment Wednesday. Reddit filed the lawsuit Wednesday in California Superior Court in San Francisco, where both companies are based.

“AI companies should not be allowed to scrape information and content from people without clear limitations on how they can use that data,” said Ben Lee, Reddit’s chief legal officer, in a statement Wednesday.

Reddit has previously entered licensing agreements with Google, OpenAI and other companies to enable them to train their AI systems on Reddit commentary.

Those agreements “enable us to enforce meaningful protections for our users, including the right to delete your content, user privacy protections, and preventing users from being spammed using this content,” Lee said.

Anthropic was formed by former OpenAI executives in 2021 and its flagship Claude chatbot remains a key competitor to OpenAI’s ChatGPT. Much like other AI companies, it’s relied heavily on websites such as Wikipedia and Reddit that are full of rich sources of written materials to teach an AI assistant the patterns of human language

In a 2021 paper co-authored by Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei — cited in the lawsuit — researchers at the company identified the subreddits, or subject-matter forums, that contained the highest quality data, such as those focused on gardening, history or thoughts people have in the shower.

Anthropic in 2023 argued in a letter to the U.S. Copyright Office that the “way Claude was trained qualifies as a quintessentially lawful use of materials,” by making copies of information to perform a statistical analysis of a large body of data.

But Reddit’s lawsuit is different from others brought against AI companies because it doesn’t allege copyright infringement. Instead, it focuses on the alleged breach of Reddit’s terms of use, and the unfair competition, it says, was created.

U.S. agriculture officials are warning that ground beef sold at Whole Foods markets nationwide may be contaminated with potentially dangerous E. coli bacteria.

Officials on Tuesday issued a public health alert for 1-pound, vacuum-packed packages of Organic Rancher beef, produced on May 22 and May 23, by NPC Processing Inc., of Shelburne, Vermont. The products have use-by dates of June 19 and June 20.

The U.S. Food Safety and Inspection Service did not request a recall because the products are no longer available for purchase. However, they may still be in consumers’ refrigerators or freezers.

The meat was produced in Australia or Uruguay and processed in the U.S. It was sent to distributors in Connecticut, Georgia, Illinois and Maryland and then to Whole Foods stores nationwide. The problem was discovered when company officials notified FSIS that they had shipped beef products that tested positive for E. coli O157:H7, a type of bacteria that can cause serious illness.

To date, no illnesses linked to the product have been reported, officials said. Consumers who have the product should throw it away or return it to the store.

E. coli bacteria can cause infections with symptoms that include dehydration, diarrhea and cramps. Most people recover within a week, but some people can become severely ill and develop a dangerous kidney condition. Children under age 5 and older adults are most at risk.

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The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Science and Educational Media Group and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

HAMLET, N.C. (AP) — Amazon plans to invest $10 billion toward building a campus in North Carolina to expand its cloud computing and artificial intelligence infrastructure, bringing a massive shot in the arm to a region where many textile and apparel jobs dried up a generation ago.

Amazon said Wednesday that its investment in rural Richmond County should create at least 500 jobs and support thousands more through construction and data center supply chain providers, according to statements from the company and Gov. Josh Stein’s office. Stein called the investment one of the largest in state history.

Data centers are already familiar to North Carolina’s landscape, including those operated by Apple. This project could transform Richmond County, which is on the South Carolina border and has a population of about 42,000.

The Richmond County site is expected to employ engineers, network and security specialists and other technical roles, the company said. Amazon said it would provide support for universities, community colleges and other workforce training programs to help people enter data center and broadband expansion fields.

“This investment will position North Carolina as a hub for cutting-edge technology, create hundreds of high-skilled jobs, and drive significant economic growth,” Amazon chief global affairs and legal officer David Zapolsky said. “We look forward to partnering with state and local leaders, local suppliers, and educational institutions to nurture the next generation of talent.”

Richmond County commissioners approved an incentives package for Amazon on Tuesday. The company could receive annual cash grants for 20 years equal to portions of the real estate property tax and the property tax for vehicles and equipment at each data center contingent on job creation and monetary investment thresholds, The Richmond Observer reported.

“This project will truly transform our community in ways that we cannot imagine,” Richmond County Manager Bryan Land said at Tuesday’s commissioners meeting. “With the announcement comes large-scale upgrades to our water system, Rockingham’s wastewater system and our fiber optic infrastructure throughout our county — all of which will come at a cost to our Richmond County taxpayers of zero.”

Stein’s office, which called the project an “innovation campus,” said the data centers will contain servers, storage drives, networking equipment and other technology.

“Artificial intelligence is changing the way we work and innovate, and I am pleased that North Carolina will stay at the forefront of all that’s ahead as we continue to attract top technology companies like Amazon,” Stein said. The governor attended a public announcement about the investment on Wednesday at an investment in Hamlet.

The company said it has invested $12 billon in North Carolina since 2010 and supports 24,000 full- and part-time jobs.