Complainants claim that their works on Google Play Books were not licensed for use in training Gemini.
The case, filed in federal court in New York, has been brought by three publishers – Hachette Book Group, Cengage Learning, and Elsevier – and bestselling American author Scott Turow.
The publishers argue that Google repurposed books that had been supplied for limited services such as Google Books, Google Play Books and Google Scholar.
Those services allowed Google to use the works in specific ways – for example, to display searchable snippets or sell ebooks – but not, the lawsuit claims, to copy them for training commercial AI products.
The filing claims Google flagged internally that it could face “$10Bs-$100Bs in potential fines” for using texts provided by publishers for Google Play Books.
The publishers say Google’s actions are harming authors and the wider publishing industry, arguing that AI-generated content could negatively impact book sales.
Google has opposed their participation in that case, prompting the publishers to launch a separate action.
The plaintiffs are seeking statutory damages, a permanent injunction preventing Google from continuing the alleged infringement, and a court order requiring the company to destroy any unauthorised copies of their works used in training its AI systems.
Google did not respond to a Guardian request for comment.
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