Artificial Intelligence is a game changer, but things are moving so fast with the technology that complications will surface. They already are, and one big one is how owners of copyrighted works will be compensated when their IP is being used without their permission.
This scenario is playing out in real-time right now, as thousands of published authors are asking for payment from tech companies for the use of their work. The names are big, including Dan Brown, James Patterson, and Jonathan Franzen, and over 8,000 writers have signed an open letter posted by the Authors Guild accusing AI companies of poaching their work.
“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 writers want compensation for what’s been used, and they want AI companies to ask permission before just taking their copyrighted material in the future.
Here is another excerpt from the letter. “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.”
Most major tech companies are all in on AI and designing their systems to crank out beautiful and compelling photos and written work that responds seamlessly to prompts by users. And to do that, they use copyrighted material to help create those models.
The letter was targeted to most of the big players in tech and addressed specifically to CEOs, including the top bosses at OPenAI, Meta, Google, IBM, and Microsoft.
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