Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei is trying to avoid being deposed in a copyright lawsuit against OpenAI, according to new court filings. In response, lawyers for the plaintiff — the Authors Guild — have filed a motion to compel testimony from Amodei and his Anthropic co-founder, Benjamin Mann.
Authors Guild’s lawyers claim that Amodei and Mann, who both used to work at OpenAI, possess “unique, firsthand knowledge of information highly relevant to this case.”
The Authors Guild — which is representing writers like John Grisham, George R.R. Martin, and Sylvia Day in the suit — sent subpoenas to Amodei and Mann in 2024 seeking testimony as well as communications from their time at OpenAI. The lawsuit was filed in September 2023 in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York.
Lawyers for the Authors Guild, Amodei, and Mann did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Anthropic also did not respond.
The motion and the subpoenas, which have not been previously reported, show that some of the many copyright lawsuits that allege OpenAI trained ChatGPT on stolen material are heating up. Discovery in the Authors Guild case, which was filed in 2023, is supposed to wrap up in April. Meanwhile, OpenAI is reportedly in talks to raise around $40 billion.
Amodei and Mann originally agreed in June 2024 to sit for seven-hour depositions after receiving the subpoenas, according to the motion. They have also prepared a cache of text, WhatsApp, and Facebook Messenger messages as part of the discovery process.
But lawyers representing the Anthropic co-founders delayed the testimony near the end of 2024 in hopes of coordinating the depositions with testimony slated for another lawsuit against OpenAI. (That lawsuit is a combined case involving three separate actions brought by comedian Sarah Silverman, author Michael Chabon, and author Paul Tremblay.)
Now it seems lawyers for Amodei and Mann are trying to get out of the depositions altogether.
On January 16, 2025, lawyers for Amodei and Mann told the Authors Guild that Amodei “is not available for deposition,” according to an email attached to the motion.
Lawyers for Amodei — who two months ago sat for a five-hour interview with podcaster Lex Fridman — argued the CEO’s schedule was too demanding, something that’s referred to as the “apex doctrine.”
Mann has also tried to avoid giving testimony in the Authors Guild case unless it can be coordinated with a deposition in the consolidated lawsuit and limited to four hours. His lawyers cite that he has two young children and a family member “who received a serious medical diagnosis.” His legal team also told the Authors Guild on January 16 that Mann would only sit for a deposition if the guild agreed not to depose Amodei, the emails show.
Mann has since filed a motion to quash the subpoena and deposition in the consolidated OpenAI case.
Published by: Sean O’Kane
