Meta Wins Protective Order for Chat Logs in Authors’ AI Suit (1)

Chat logs from a former Meta Platforms Inc. AI researcher who claims company lawyers told him that training an AI model on a pirated ebooks database could be illegal are protected by attorney-client privilege, a San Francisco federal court ruled Thursday.

Magistrate Judge Thomas S. Hixson’s protective order said the group of authors suing Meta for copyright infringement over its AI model cannot use the chat logs “and must return them to Meta or destroy them.”

The authors, who include comedian Sarah Silverman and Pulitzer Prize-winner Andrew Sean Greer, argued that Meta waived its privilege over the chat logs and ...