Big tech companies are using almost 200,000 books to teach their artificial intelligence systems.
But here’s the catch: they didn’t ask the authors for permission.
This system is called Books3, and it’s built using pirated e-books covering a wide range of topics, from romance novels to poetry.
These books help AI systems learn how to understand and use language.
While some AI training material can come from online articles, top-notch AI needs high-quality text, which is where books come in.
However, Books3 is facing multiple lawsuits from authors and others against companies like Meta that use it to train AI.
Recently, The Atlantic published a database from Books3, allowing authors to see if their books were used to train AI.
Many authors were not happy about it.
Authors like Mary H. K. Choi, who wrote “Emergency Contact,” found her deeply personal work being used without her consent.
She expressed her frustration and helplessness, stating that books contain the author’s unique choices and emotions.
“I’m completely gutted and whipsawed.
I am outraged and at the same time feel utterly helpless,” wrote Mary H. K. Choi on social media,
“I’m furious and want to fight but I’m also so tired,” she added.
“A book encapsulates infinite choices, boundless permutations, and even shortcomings of the author at the time.
To think that all this life can be chucked into a vast churning pool to be extruded into a giant algorithmic, generative sausage machine reduces so much so swiftly,” she said.
“Not just financially for the authors but it beggars booksellers, librarians, and readers from so many intimacies.”
Min Jin Lee, known for novels like “Pachinko” and “Free Food for Millionaires,” called this use of her books “a theft” of her work, time, and creativity.
“I spent three decades of my life writing my books,” she said.
“The Al large language models did not ‘ingest’ or ‘scrape’ ‘data.’
Al companies stole my work, time, and creativity. They stole my stories.
They stole a part of me.”
Nora Roberts, a popular romance novelist, has 206 books in the Books3 database, and she called it “all kinds of wrong.”
She believes that writers are being exploited without permission or compensation.
“We are human beings, we are writers, and we’re being exploited by people who want to use our work, again without permission or compensation, to `write’ books, scripts, essays because it’s cheap and easy,” Roberts said
Nik Sharma, whose cookbook “Season” was included, was horrified but not surprised.
He pointed out that no one contacted the authors for permission or payment, emphasizing that education isn’t free in the US.
“I’m horrified but not surprised that I’d be taken advantage of,” he said in a social media post.
“Obviously, I wasn’t even asked for permission or received any compensation for the use of my work to train AI.”
Meta, which has used the Books3 database according to The Atlantic, did not respond to a request for comment.
A spokesperson for Bloomberg noted in a statement that the company had “used a number of different data sources,” including Books3, to train its initial BloombergGPT model, an AI model for the financial industry.
But, according to the spokesperson, Bloomberg will “not include the Books3 dataset among the data sources used to train future commercial versions of BloombergGPT.”
Not every author was upset; James Chappel, an academic author, welcomed the idea of his book being used by AI to educate people.
“I want my book to (be) read!” he wrote.
“I want it to educate!”
AI has become a big concern for many writers, leading to strikes and protests.
Writers are not alone in this struggle; visual artists have also faced similar issues with their work being used for AI training without consent.
These discussions come at a time when the US President, Joe Biden, plans to introduce an executive order on AI to ensure responsible innovation.
For writers like Choi, discovering their work was used without permission was disheartening, especially during debates about AI in writing.
It feels like their efforts in one area are being erased in another.
Despite the frustration, writers like Choi and Roberts call for unity among authors and readers to combat this problem.
They believe it’s crucial to protect their work and stand up for each other in the face of AI exploitation.
