Several authors, including Richard Kadrey, Sarah Silverman, and Christopher Golden, have filed a class-action lawsuit against Meta and OpenAI for using their copyrighted material without consent. The article suggests that more authors should join the fight and that tech companies should pay authors a fair price for the right to use their books. The author also suggests that book publishers, magazine publishers, and newspaper publishers should join the fight, and that it might require congressional action to stop these companies from stealing intellectual capital from writers.
Key takeaways:
- Author William D. Cohan and other writers have found their books used without permission to train AI systems by companies like Meta and Bloomberg, with no compensation provided.
- Several authors, including Richard Kadrey, Sarah Silverman, and Christopher Golden, have filed a class-action lawsuit against Meta and OpenAI for using their copyrighted material without consent or compensation.
- Big tech companies like Microsoft, Google, and Meta are profiting significantly from AI products, with their stock-market valuations soaring, partly due to their AI announcements and products that rely on the work of content creators.
- Cohan suggests that writers need to band together to lobby against these companies and fight for proper compensation for their work, potentially requiring congressional action to stop these companies from stealing intellectual capital.