Last week witnessed around 100 authors staging a protest outside Meta’s Londonheadquarters. Their grievance? They accused the American tech behemoth ofsurreptitiously “Pilfering” their works for training its AI models. Someprotesters chanted slogans like “Meta, Meta, book thiEVEs” and brandishedsigns with messages such as “I wanted to write a sign, but you’d steal it” and”Give our books back, Zuck”, a direct shot at Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg.
Previously, concerns had emerged after Zuckerberg gave the go-ahead for thecompany to utilize an online library named “LibGen”. This library providesaccess to over 7.5 million books, with many potentially serving as thefoundation for Meta’s AI training data. In response, The Atlantic developeda seARChable database enabling authors to verify whether their works wereincluded in the AI training data.
A Meta spokesperson informed The Guardian that, “We respect the intellectualproperty rights of third parties and believe our use of information intraining AI models adheres to existing laws.” However, author A.J. West wasoutraged upon discovering his work in the database. He felt “violated andsickened”, angrily stating, “It’s revolting that years of my life’s work arebeing exploited to enrich tech billionaires.”
West attempted to hand over a letter signed by numerous prominent authors toMeta, only to find the doors firmly locked. He scoffed, “It’s ludicrous that acompany that stole billions of words is afraid of 500 words on a single page.”He called for the UK government to step in, deeming Culture Secretary LucyFrazer’s silence “unacceptable” and accusing Meta of potentially perpetrating”the most egregious assault on copyright in British history.”
Gail Renard, a 69-year-old author and television Writer, remarked, “If yousteal a diamond ring, there are consequences; the same should hold true here.”She emphasized that the creative industries, the UK’s second-largest industry,generate £125 billion annually, underscoring the significance of copyrightprotection.
Author and artist Sophie Parkin described the current situation as “life-changing” for everyone and questioned the purpose of continuing to write.Wearing a hat emblazoned with the slogan “AI Pay Authors”, she urged thegovernment to take action, criticizing Prime Minister Rishi Sunak forallegedly “colluding” with these billionaires.
This protest vividly showcases the escalating anger among creators towardscompanies building generative AI platforms. These platforms require vastquantities of text, images, and aUdio to construct their predictive models.Although major AI companies assert that their practices comply with US “fairuse” provisions, this argument is being challenged in courts across the US andother regions.
