Renowned South African author Zakes Mda has confirmed that he is among a group of international writers who won a landmark R27.5 billion ($1.5 billion) settlement in a class action lawsuit against U.S.-based artificial intelligence company Anthropic.
The case, officially known as Bartz v. Anthropic, marks one of the most significant legal victories yet in the global debate over AI and copyright infringement. The writers accused Anthropic—developer of the AI model Claude—of unlawfully using their copyrighted works to train its systems without consent or compensation.
A historic win for authors worldwide
Speaking to media, Mda confirmed that the case was settled in favour of the authors earlier this year, with a preliminary approval granted in September 2025.
“We did sue, and there was a case they call a class-action in the USA called Bartz v. Anthropic, which we, fellow writers whose books were used without our permission, won,” said Mda.
The class action was initiated by a coalition of authors—many of them prominent novelists and non-fiction writers—after discovering that their books had been included in datasets used to train AI systems.
The 1.5 billion USD (R25,745,805,000) settlement will be shared among the affected authors, with compensation based on how many of their works were used during the AI’s training process.
Mda, who was informed of the development through his London-based literary agents, said he was “surprised but pleased” to learn that several of his most celebrated novels were part of the dataset.
“Damn! I didn’t know of my contribution in the development of AI,” he said humorously. “But the only reason I am telling you this story is to ask the question: what about our South African writers?”
Mda’s works used in AI training
Among Zakes Mda’s novels identified in the training data are:
The Heart of Redness
The Madonna of Excelsior
The Whale Caller
She Plays with the Darkness
Sometimes There Is a Void: Memoirs of an Outsider
The author, whose works are celebrated for their exploration of post-apartheid identity, social commentary, and African storytelling, expressed concern that South African copyright law may not yet offer local writers the same protection that American law does in such cases.
“It remains unclear whether the South African ‘fair use’ doctrine protects our intellectual property in similar ways,” he said. “Don’t be deceived by the billions—they’re not all coming to me. But at least, however little, I will be compensated for each book that was used.”
What the case means for copyright and AI
The Bartz v. Anthropic settlement follows several similar lawsuits brought against leading AI companies, including OpenAI and Meta, by authors and publishers around the world. These legal battles have sparked a global reckoning over AI ethics, data sourcing, and creative ownership in the digital era.
For South Africa, the case raises important questions about whether local laws are prepared to protect creators’ rights as AI technologies increasingly rely on massive datasets—often scraped from online publications, ebooks, and archives.
Legal experts believe that the outcome of the Anthropic case could set a powerful international precedent, potentially paving the way for African authors to pursue similar claims if their works were used without permission.
A wake-up call for creative industries
Mda’s victory, though shared among many global writers, represents a symbolic triumph for authors across the continent who have long struggled with issues of copyright, compensation, and recognition.
“This case shows that even in the digital world, creative ownership still matters,” said one literary analyst. “It’s a reminder that AI companies cannot simply take from artists without giving back.”
As AI continues to reshape the creative landscape, Zakes Mda’s story highlights a new frontier in the battle for intellectual property — one that merges literature, technology, and justice in an era where lines between human and machine creation are increasingly blurred.
