Over 8,000 published authors, including renowned names like Margaret Atwood and Dan Brown, have signed an open letter demanding compensation from tech companies for using their copyrighted works to train artificial intelligence (AI) tools.
The Authors Guild posted the letter on Tuesday, targeting companies like OpenAI, Meta, Google, Stability AI, IBM, and Microsoft.
The letter accused AI companies of benefiting unfairly from the creative efforts of authors without offering compensation.
“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 reads.
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Tech companies are actively working on AI tools that can generate images and written content based on user prompts, utilizing large language models trained on vast amounts of online information.
However, the recent surge in AI Training and Copyright critiques has led to growing pressure on tech giants over alleged violations related to AI training processes.
Earlier this month, 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 “stealing everything ever created and shared on the internet by hundreds of millions of Americans,” including copyrighted content.
Google has denied the claims, asserting its upfront disclosure of using public data for algorithm training.
The authors who signed the letter are demanding compensation “for the past and ongoing use of our works in your generative AI programs.”
They also urged AI companies to seek permission before using copyrighted material and to pay writers when their works feature in AI-generated outputs, regardless of whether they potentially infringe on current copyright law.
Referencing this year’s Supreme Court ruling in Warhol v Goldsmith, where Andy Warhol was found to have infringed on a photographer’s copyright, the letter argued that the high commerciality of AI use countered the fair use defense.
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman acknowledged the need to address concerns from creators about AI systems using their works, stating, “We’re trying to work on new models where if an AI system is using your content, or if it’s using your style, you get paid for that.”
The demand from thousands of authors adds to the ongoing debate about intellectual property rights in the context of AI development, further challenging tech companies to find solutions that balance innovation and fair compensation for content creators.
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