Lawyers square off in fight over voice data used to train AI

Lawyers are set to test Illinois’ Biometric Information Privacy Act in federal court, with nine major tech companies accused of violating the law by using thousands of hours of recorded human voices to train AI systems. The cases, filed in Chicago, are brought as proposed class actions by journalists, podcasters and audiobook narrators, including Chicago reporter Carol Marin and Pulitzer Prize winners Yohance Lacour and Alison Flowers. Lead plaintiff attorney Ross Kimbarovsky of Loevy & Loevy says each defendant could face hundreds of millions of dollars in damages. The companies deny the claims; Apple previously sought consolidation into one judge’s docket.