Thousands of renowned authors have come together to demand compensation from major tech companies for the use of their copyrighted materials in training artificial intelligence (AI) systems, Your Content has learned.
This development highlights a significant concern about intellectual property rights in AI development.
The impressive list of more than 9,000 authors includes literary luminaries such as Margaret Atwood, Dan Brown, Michael Chabon, Jonathan Franzen, James Patterson, Jodi Picoult, and Philip Pullman, among many others.
In an open letter shared by the Authors Guild on Tuesday, these writers accused AI companies of profiting unfairly from their creative works.
The letter stated, “Millions of copyrighted books, articles, essays, and poetry provide the ‘food’ for AI systems, endless meals for which there has been no bill. You’re spending billions of dollars to develop AI technology. It is only fair that you compensate us for using our writings, without which AI would be banal and extremely limited.”
The letter, addressed to the CEOs of prominent AI companies, including OpenAI (creator of ChatGPT), Meta (parent company of Facebook), Google, Stability AI, IBM, and Microsoft, called for proper acknowledgment and compensation for authors’ contributions to the AI training process.
Although most of the companies did not immediately respond to the letter, Meta, Microsoft, and Stability AI declined to comment. This demand for payment comes at a time when the tech industry is focusing on developing AI tools that can generate compelling content based on user prompts.
These tools rely on large language models trained on vast amounts of online data, raising concerns about potential intellectual property violations.
In recent times, the tech industry has faced legal challenges over alleged copyright infringement in AI training.
Notably, comedian Sarah Silverman and two authors filed a copyright lawsuit against OpenAI and Meta, while Google faced a proposed class-action suit accusing the company of using copyrighted content without proper authorization.
The authors’ open letter doesn’t stop at compensation; it also calls on AI companies to seek permission before using copyrighted material and to pay writers when their works are featured in generative AI results, regardless of whether they infringe on current copyright laws.
The letter draws attention to a recent Supreme Court ruling in Warhol v Goldsmith, which found that the late artist Andy Warhol infringed on a photographer’s copyright when creating silk screens based on a photograph of the late singer Prince.
The court held that Warhol had not sufficiently “transformed” the original photograph to avoid copyright infringement.
The authors argue that the commercial use of their works by AI companies contradicts the principles of fair use. This growing demand for proper compensation and respect for intellectual property rights emphasizes the need for further discussions and action from AI companies to address creators’ concerns.
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman previously acknowledged the need for more effort to address creators’ concerns about AI system usage. He mentioned exploring new models where content creators and stylists would be compensated when AI systems employ their work or style.
This united front of authors adds significant weight to the ongoing debate surrounding AI development and intellectual property rights.