John Grisham, Jodi Picoult and George RR Martin are among 17 authors who have sued the artificial intelligence (AI) organization OpenAI for “systematic theft on a large scale,” the Associated Press news agency reported Thursday.
This is the latest legal action by writers concerned that artificial intelligence programs are using their copyrighted works without permission.
In papers filed Tuesday in federal court in New York, the plaintiffs alleged “egregious and harmful copyright infringements” and called the ChatGPT program a “massive commercial enterprise” that relies on “systematic theft on a large scale.” .
The process was organized by the Authors Guild and also involved David Baldacci, Sylvia Day, Jonathan Franzen and Elin Hilderbrand, among others.
“It is imperative that we stop this theft or we will destroy our incredible literary culture, which powers so many other creative industries in America,” Mary Rasenberger, executive director of the Authors Guild, said in a statement.
“Great books are often written by those who dedicate their careers, and even their lives, to learning and perfecting their craft. To preserve our literature, authors must have the ability to control whether and how AI uses their works,” he said.
The lawsuit cites author-specific ChatGPT surveys, such as one for Martin, which alleges that the show generated “a detailed, unauthorized and infringing outline for a prequel” to “Game of Thrones” and used “the same characters from the books that Martin already exist. .
In a statement Wednesday, an OpenAI spokesperson said the company respects “the rights of writers and authors, and believes they should benefit from AI technology.”
“We are having productive conversations with many creators around the world, including the Authors Guild, and have been working collaboratively to understand and discuss their concerns about AI. We are optimistic and believe that we will continue to find mutually beneficial ways to work together to help people. use new technologies in a rich content ecosystem,” the statement reads.
Earlier this month, a handful of authors, including Michael Chabon and David Henry Hwang, sued OpenAI in San Francisco for “clear intellectual property infringement.”
In August, OpenAI asked a federal judge in California to dismiss two similar lawsuits, one involving comedian Sarah Silverman and the other involving author Paul Tremblay.
In the court filing, OpenAI said the claims “misconceive the scope of copyright, failing to take into account the limitations and exceptions (including fair use) that leave room for innovations such as the large language models now available.” at the forefront of artificial intelligence.”
Authors’ objections to AI helped Amazon.com, the country’s largest book retailer, change its policies on e-books.
The e-commerce giant is now asking writers who want to publish through the Kindle Direct program to notify Amazon in advance that they will include AI-generated material.
Amazon is also limiting authors to three new self-published books on Kindle Direct per day, in an effort to curb the proliferation of AI-based texts.
Source: TSF
