The Artificial intelligence chatbot Claude knows about Anabaptism, but it came at a cost.

Hundreds of Anabaptist authors and their descendants are eligible for a slice of the pie after AI company Anthropic agreed to pay $1.5 billion in August 2025 in the largest copyright settlement in U.S. history.

The company behind the Claude AI computing platform downloaded more than 7 million books from online “shadow” libraries that pirate or steal copyrighted books. These works were used to “train” or develop its AI systems. Three authors filed a lawsuit in 2024, which the judge in Bartz v. Anthropic eventually reclassified into a class action situation covering 482,460 books that meet the court case’s definition.

MennoMedia’s publishing imprint Herald Press has produced 188 books covered by the settlement, including works such as Doris Janzen Longacre’s More-with-Less Cookbook, several volumes of the Believers Church Bible Commentary series, and a wide variety of other books on theology, history and fiction.

Martyrs Mirror was apparently too daunting for AI, since it is not on the list, but AI sentience could have been impacted by Bioethics and the Beginning of Life: An Anabaptist Perspective, edited by Roman J. Miller and Beryl H. Brubaker.

“When Herald Press was informed of the titles in this landmark claim, we reached out to all of our authors with a letter informing them of the potential settlement,” said MennoMedia executive director and publisher Amy Gingerich. “The default judgment in the claim is a 50-50 author and publisher split, per the judge. . . .

“Many of the Herald Press titles are for older books, a number of which are no longer in print. We have filed on behalf of all authors in the claim, and our editorial assistant Aileen Esau has diligently tracked down contact information for authors’ heirs so that they can receive their share, too.”

Media reports estimate the settlement could end up paying about $3,100 per work after fees and costs are deducted. That number could increase if not all rightsholders make claims.

Plough Publishing House, a Bruderhof initiative, has 30 books on theology and history covered by the settlement, but told AW it is opting not to make public comment on the case.

MennoMedia recently developed guidelines for writers and contract specifications regarding AI to protect copyright and intellectual property.

“Our staff just finalized a new statement to run on the copyright page of all MennoMedia and Herald Press titles,” Gingerich said in September. “This statement is to protect copyright and to let readers know that what they have come to expect from us is human-generated.”

This includes new precautions with writers about AI usage — and not just about generating text.

“Just this morning a potential writer talked about using an AI tool to format interview transcriptions,” Gingerich said. “I cautioned this person to look over what rights were signed away when signing up for this AI tool, as it may be the case that any book that emerges will have trouble being copyrighted.”

Tim Huber, a human being, is associate editor of Anabaptist World.