Authors Guild asks tech companies not to use copyrighted content to train AI without permission

The Authors Guild of America recently promulgated a joint statement, demanding that industry players including OpenAI, Google, Meta, Stability AI, IBM, and Microsoft refrain from utilizing the creative content of authors in training artificial intelligence without prior permission.

The declaration, addressed to OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, Alphabet and Google CEO Sundar Pichai, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, Stability AI CEO Emad Mostak, IBM CEO Arvind Krishna, and Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, has thus far accrued over 8500 signatures in support.

Within the text of the letter, the Authors Guild expressed concern that technology companies are exploiting vast quantities of copyrighted material – encompassing books, articles, papers, and poems – without appropriate authorization and gratuitously. Most of these corporations have not clarified their sources of content. Even though companies like Google have publicly declared that they use openly accessible internet information for AI training, there persist instances where authorization is not sought beforehand.

Therefore, the Authors Guild stipulates that technology companies must secure permission before deploying copyrighted works for AI training. They must also provide equitable compensation to authors whose works have been incorporated into AI training. When AI operations generate content using copyrighted works, authors must likewise be furnished with appropriate recompense.