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There is currently a heated debate surrounding the implementation of artificial intelligence (AI) technology. One notable figure who has taken a stance on the issue is Canadian author Margaret Atwood, who has joined a large group of other authors in support of her position. More than 9,000 writers have signed a petition addressed to OpenAI, Alphabet, Meta, Stability AI, IBM, and Microsoft demanding authors grant permission before incorporating copyrighted work into their technologies.
The Authors Guild is an organization that represents writers in the United States and advocates on behalf of working writers to protect free speech, freedom of expression, and authors’ copyrights; fights for fair contracts and authors ability to earn a livable wage. According to the press release:
More than 9,000 writers and their supporters have signed the letter including luminaries such as Dan Brown, James Patterson, Jennifer Egan, David Baldacci, Michael Chabon, Nora Roberts, Jesmyn Ward, Jodi Picoult, Ron Chernow, Michael Pollan, Suzanne Collins, Margaret Atwood, Jonathan Franzen, Roxane Gay, Celeste Ng, Louise Erdrich, Viet Thanh Nguyen, George Saunders, Min Jin Lee, Andrew Solomon, Rebecca Makkai, Tobias Wolff, and many others.
The open letter emphasizes that generative AI technologies heavily rely on authors’ language, stories, style, and ideas. Millions of copyrighted books, articles, essays, and poetry serve as the foundation for AI systems, yet authors have not received any compensation for their contributions. These works are part of the fabric of the language models that power ChatGPT, Bard, and other generative AI systems. Where AI companies like to say that their machines simply “read” the texts that they are trained on, this is inaccurate anthropomorphizing. Rather, they copy the texts into the software itself, and then they reproduce them again and again.
Hollywood has basically shut down due to the Writers Guild of America (WGA) and the Screen Actors Guild – American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA) which makes the timing of the letter on behalf of the Authors Guild in line with a pushback by creators on and off the screen.
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