U.S. artificial intelligence (AI) developer Anthropic has been sued for allegedly inflating the usage limits of its Generative AI model Claude when selling to subscribers.
According to the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) on the 15th local time, an individual consumer living in Washington, D.C., filed a complaint with the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California that day seeking a refund of subscription fees, saying Anthropic misled consumers by misstating the usage limits of the Claude Premium subscription plan.
In the complaint, the plaintiff argued that the actual usage limits offered by Claude's "Max 5x" and "Max 20x" subscription plans fall far short of what was presented in advertising. When launching its premium plan for individual customers, Anthropic said Max 5x offers five times and Max 20x offers 20 times the usage limits of the basic paid plan, respectively, but the plaintiff said the perceived usage limits were lower than that.
Claude's basic paid plan costs $17–$20 per month, while Max 5x and Max 20x cost $100 and $200 per month, respectively.
WSJ said, "This lawsuit is an early example of consumer backlash against the expense and opaque operations of AI subscription services," adding, "AI subscriptions, along with streaming services, are already becoming fixed expenditure items for consumers."