Oct 10 (Reuters) - Apple ( AAPL ) was hit with a lawsuit

in California federal court by a pair of neuroscientists who say

that the tech company misused thousands of copyrighted books to

train its Apple Intelligence artificial intelligence model.

Susana Martinez-Conde and Stephen Macknik, professors at SUNY

Downstate Health Sciences University in Brooklyn, New York, told

the court in a proposed class action on Thursday that Apple ( AAPL ) used

illegal "shadow libraries" of pirated books to train Apple

Intelligence.

A separate group of authors sued Apple ( AAPL ) last month for allegedly

misusing their work in AI training.

TECH COMPANIES FACING LAWSUITS

The lawsuit is one of many high-stakes cases brought by

copyright owners such as authors, news outlets, and music labels

against tech companies, including OpenAI, Microsoft ( MSFT ),

and Meta Platforms ( META ), over the unauthorized use of their

work in AI training. Anthropic agreed to pay $1.5 billion to

settle a lawsuit from another group of authors over the training

of its AI-powered chatbot Claude in August.

Spokespeople for Apple ( AAPL ) and Martinez-Conde, Macknik, and

their attorney did not immediately respond to requests for

comment on the new complaint on Friday.

Apple Intelligence is a suite of AI-powered features

integrated into iOS devices, including the iPhone and iPad.

"The day after Apple ( AAPL ) officially introduced Apple

Intelligence, the company gained more than $200 billion in

value: 'the single most lucrative day in the history of the

company,'" the lawsuit said.

According to the complaint, Apple ( AAPL ) utilized datasets

comprising thousands of pirated books as well as other

copyright-infringing materials scraped from the internet to

train its AI system.

The lawsuit said that the pirated books included

Martinez-Conde and Macknik's "Champions of Illusion: The Science

Behind Mind-Boggling Images and Mystifying Brain Puzzles" and

"Sleights of Mind: What the Neuroscience of Magic Reveals About

Our Everyday Deceptions."

The professors requested an unspecified amount of monetary

damages and an order for Apple ( AAPL ) to stop misusing their

copyrighted work.