The San Francisco federal judge overseeing prominent authors' artificial intelligence copyright lawsuit against Meta said he's completely lost confidence in the plaintiffs' legal team and that he won't grant class certification unless plaintiffs hire a new one.

The team, led by San Francisco antitrust and class action lawyer Joseph Saveri of the Joseph Saveri Law Firm and Los Angeles lawyer Matthew Butterick, has "failed to adequately and diligently litigate" the case, U.S. District Judge Vince Chhabria said during an hourlong video hearing Friday. He expressed frustration that the case had not advanced further 11 months after its filing.