Anthropic and a group of authors said that they have reached a “settlement in principle” of the creators’ class action lawsuit against the AI company.

The judge in the case, William Alsup, set a hearing on Sept. 8 to preliminarily approve the class settlement. The terms of the settlement have not yet been disclosed.

In June, Alsup ruled that Anthropic’s use of the books in training models was “exceedingly transformative,” one of the factors courts have used in determining whether the use of protected works without authorization was a legal “fair use.” His decision was the first major decision that weighed the fair use question in generative AI systems.

Yet Alsup also ruled that Anthropic had to face a trial on the question of whether it is liable for downloading millions of pirated

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