Additionally, the same writers filed a lawsuit against ChatGPT maker OpenAI. The authors said in the OpenAI case that works like books and plays are particularly valuable for AI language training as the “best examples of high-quality, long-form writing.” They are not the first to sue Meta or OpenAI, as the two were at the center of lawsuits by another group of writers, this past July, which included comedienne Sarah Silverman and authors ??George R.R. Martin and Jodi Picoult. This most recent lawsuit is just one in the growing list of lawsuits against AI companies for copyright infringement and plagiarism.
Meta published a list of datasets used to train its first version of the Llama model, which it released in February. The company did not disclose training data for its latest version, Llama 2. (Again, despite their claims of fair play and transparency, posted on the Meta website.)
Llama 2, the first large language model that Meta has made publicly available for commercial use, is free to use for companies with fewer than 700 million monthly active users. If authors win the pending lawsuits against OpenAI or Meta, it could “fundamentally reshape artificial intelligence” according to experts.
“At the heart of these algorithms is systemic theft on a massive scale,” the lawsuit for OpenAI claims. The issues in both these lawsuits are the datasets, what datasets are being used to train artificial intelligence if that can legally be done without an author’s permission, and what limits, if any, should be set on artificial intelligence. The Meta lawsuit comes on the heels of a massive writers’ strike.
After 148 days of striking the Writer’s Guild (WGA) resolved its strike against several major Hollywood studios. One new labor agreement that was reached will seek to limit the use and training of generative artificial intelligence tools in Hollywood thus setting a precedent for future labor agreements in a wide variety of industries. The Author’s Guild is another named plaintiff in lawsuits against Google, Meta and OpenAI seeking protections for all writers against their intellectual property being used to train AI without their knowledge or consent.
A spokesperson for Meta declined to comment on the new lawsuit. An attorney for the writers did not immediately respond to a request for comment, according to Reuters.
Nicole is a recent graduate (okay fine, a recent-ish graduate) of Texas State University-San Marcos where she received a BA in Psychology. When she's not doing freelance writing, she's doing freelance Public Relations. When she's not working, she's hanging out with dogs or her friends - in that order. Nicole watches way too much Netflix and is always quoting The Office. She has an obsession with true crime and sloths.
