Authors hold protest against Meta for 'stealing' work to train AI ...
Around 100 authors protested outside the London headquarters of Meta last week, accusing the US tech giant of "stealing" content to train its Artificial Intelligence models. Writers chanted "Meta, Meta, book thieves" as they made their way to the Meta building, with some carrying placards reading "I'd write a sign but you'd steal it" and "Get the Zuck off our books", in reference to Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg.
A US court filing earlier this year alleged that Zuckerberg approved the company using the online library "LibGen", which provides access to copyrighted works and contains more than 7.5 million books. The Atlantic magazine has published a searchable database of the titles contained in "LibGen", allowing authors to find out if their works may have been used to train Meta's AI models. A Meta spokesperson told the Guardian that "we respect third-party intellectual property rights and believe our use of information to train AI models is consistent with existing law."
Authors' Reactions
Author AJ West, known for "The Spirit Engineer," expressed feeling "abused and disgusted" upon discovering his work on the database. He criticized the use of his work without permission, stating, "To have my work that took years to write, and that I poured my heart and soul into, used to make tech billionaires even more money, is so disgusting." West called for government intervention and criticized Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy for her silence on the matter.
Author and TV writer Gail Renard emphasized the importance of copyright protection, stating, "The creative industry is Britain's second-biggest industry. We bring in £125 billion ($164 billion) a year. If you want to kill off the creative industries, kill off our copyright. There's a lot of anger here."
Artist and author Sophie Parkin echoed similar sentiments, expressing concern over the impact on creators, saying, "They aren't even creating anything, they are stealing our words and then making money out of it." Parkin urged government action and criticized Prime Minister Keir Starmer for his stance on the issue.
Legal Implications
The protest highlighted the growing tension between creators of copyrighted works and companies utilizing generative AI platforms. While AI companies argue that their practices fall under US "fair use" provisions, legal challenges are emerging in courts both in America and elsewhere.
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