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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 \u2014 the Authors Guild \u2014 have filed a motion<\/a> to compel testimony from Amodei and his Anthropic co-founder, Benjamin Mann.<\/p>\n Authors Guild\u2019s lawyers claim that Amodei and Mann, who both used to work at OpenAI, possess \u201cunique, firsthand knowledge of information highly relevant to this case.\u201d <\/p>\n The Authors Guild \u2014 which is representing writers<\/a> like John Grisham, George R.R. Martin, and Sylvia Day in the suit \u2014 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\u00a0Court\u00a0for the\u00a0Southern District\u00a0of\u00a0New York.<\/p>\n Lawyers for the Authors Guild, Amodei, and Mann did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Anthropic also did not respond.<\/p>\n 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<\/a>.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n 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<\/a> brought by comedian Sarah Silverman, author Michael Chabon, and author Paul Tremblay.)<\/p>\n Now it seems lawyers for Amodei and Mann are trying to get out of the depositions altogether.<\/p>\n On January 16, 2025, lawyers for Amodei and Mann told the Authors Guild that Amodei \u201cis not available for deposition,\u201d according to an email attached to the motion. <\/p>\n Lawyers for Amodei \u2014 who two months ago sat for a five-hour interview<\/a> with podcaster Lex Fridman \u2014 argued the CEO\u2019s schedule was too demanding, something that\u2019s referred to as the \u201capex doctrine<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n 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 \u201cwho received a serious medical diagnosis.\u201d 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<\/a> show.<\/p>\n Mann has since filed a motion<\/a> to quash the subpoena and deposition in the consolidated OpenAI case.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n