Meta is utilizing the pirated intellectual property of authors, without their consent or knowledge, to train their AI systems—threatening creative integrity and intellectual property.
AI, Meta and LibGen
On Thursday 20 March, The Atlantic published a search tool containing over 7.5 million books and 81 million research papers, all pirated by Library Genesis (LibGen) and used by Meta to train its generative AI system Llama. Instead of paying to use the intellectual property of authors, Meta (the parent company of Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp) has chosen to download and use these stolen works instead.
Llama, similar to ChatGPT, is a family of open large language models (‘LLMs’), developed by Meta. These models, despite being supposedly intelligent, often present errors as fact, with tech companies arguing this is because they need more data to train them—data which they will obtain as cheaply and quickly as possible.
According to The Atlantic, Meta employees received permission from CEO Mark Zuckerberg to download and use the pirated collection of books available at LibGen, to train Llama.
Interestingly, the search tool revealed results for every book I could think of, from well known and renowned authors like Margaret Atwood, to independent smaller authors like Adam Farrer. It is these smaller authors and indie publishers who are, of course, most impacted by this blatant exploitation.
Author’s Responses
In March, the Society of Authors (SoA) called for stronger legislation to strengthen copyright law. SoA Chief Executive, Anna Ganley stated that, “Rather than ask permission and pay for these copyright protected materials, AI companies are knowingly choosing to steal them in the race to dominate the market. This is shocking behaviour by big tech that is currently being enabled by governments who are not intervening to strengthen and uphold current copyright protections. As part of the Creative Rights in AI Coalition, the SoA has been at the heart of the fight and is continuing to lobby against these unlawful and exploitative activities.”
On Thursday 3 April, authors and other publishing industry professionals staged a demonstration outside Meta’s London office to protest the use of copyrighted books to train AI. A group of authors including Richard Osman, Kazuo Ishiguro, Kate Mosse and Val McDermid have also signed a letter calling on the UK government to hold Meta accountable.
The petition, titled “Protect authors’ livelihoods from the unlicensed use of their work in AI training” currently stands at over 45,000 signatures and marks clearly the unified stance of authors against the exploitation posed by tech giants. Notably, the letter demands the Labour government “stand up against the unethical and illegal practices of tech giants, which have such a devastating impact on the lives of UK authors.” The Professional Publishers Association, in their submitted response to the government consultation on AI and copyright back in February, also strongly opposed any weakening of copyright laws.
Unsurprisingly, these responses have not been welcomed by Big Tech. A report published by the Tony Blair Institute, argues that “there are better ways to help creators flourish in the digital age than strict copyright laws”, and that the “free flow of information has been a key principle of the open web since its inception”. The report directly states that “The progressive solution is not about clinging to copyright laws designed for an earlier era but allowing them to co-evolve with technological change”.
Promoting the government’s proposal for a text and data mining exception with an option to opt out, essentially means AI companies could use creative works freely, unless the rights holders actively opt out. By automatically opting in creators, we assume they want to share their work (for free!) to these multi-billionaire companies and actively contribute to training AI. Making this the status quo not only threatens intellectual property and the rights of authors, but also points to a worrying future in which Big Tech have more rights over creative work than the creators themselves.
Words by Isobel Waugh
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