France's leading publishing and authors' associations have filed a lawsuit against U.S. tech giant Meta for allegedly using copyright-protected content on a massive scale without authorisation to train its artificial intelligence (AI) systems.

Meta is facing an AI copyright lawsuit in France that's been brought by authors and publishers who are accusing it of economic "parasitism," Reuters

French publishers and authors are taking Meta to court, accusing the social media company of using their works without permission to train its artificial intelligence model.

Leading French authors and publishers are now party to a milestone lawsuit against Meta, questioning the exploitation of copyrighted work to train AI by the platform. The case, filed in a Paris court, is France’s first and follows on from a wave of creators around the globe pushing against unauthorized use of intellectual property.

France’s National Publishing Union has noted “numerous works” from its members in Meta’s data pool, the group’s president, Vincent Montagne, said in a joint statement. He also accused the company of “noncompliance with copyright and parasitism.”