Last week, around 100 authors protested outside Meta's London headquarters, accusing the American tech giant of unauthorizedly "pilfering" their work to train its AI models. Chanting "Meta, Meta, book thieves," some protesters held signs reading "I wanted to write a sign, but you'd steal it" and "Give our books back, Zuck," a clear jab at Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg.
Earlier concerns arose regarding Zuckerberg's approval of the company's use of an online library called "LibGen," which offers access to over 7.5 million books, many potentially forming the basis of Meta's AI training data. In response, The Atlantic created a searchable database allowing authors to check if their work was included in the AI training data.
A Meta spokesperson told The Guardian, "We respect third-party intellectual property rights and believe our information use in training AI models is compliant with existing laws." However, author A.J. West expressed outrage after finding his work in the database, feeling "violated and sickened." He angrily stated, "It's sickening that years of my life's work are being used to line the pockets of tech billionaires."
West attempted to deliver a letter signed by numerous prominent authors to Meta, only to find the doors locked. "It's laughable that a company that stole billions of words is afraid of 500 words on a single page," he said. He called for UK government intervention, deeming Culture Secretary Lucy Frazer's silence "unacceptable" and accusing Meta of potentially perpetrating "the biggest attack on copyright in British history."
Gail Renard, a 69-year-old author and television writer, stated, "If you steal a diamond ring, there are consequences; there absolutely should be consequences here." She highlighted the creative industries as the UK's second-largest industry, generating £125 billion annually, emphasizing the importance of copyright protection.
Author and artist Sophie Parkin described the current situation as "life-altering" for everyone and questioned the point of continuing to write. Wearing a hat bearing the slogan "AI Pay Authors," she urged government action, criticizing Prime Minister Rishi Sunak for "colluding" with these billionaires.
This protest highlights the growing anger among creators towards companies building generative AI platforms, which require vast amounts of text, images, and audio to build their predictive models. While major AI companies claim their practices comply with US "fair use" provisions, this argument is being challenged in courts across the US and elsewhere.
