US writers’ body the Authors Guild has issued a statement expressing concern at recent licensing deals made by academic, educational, magazine, and newspaper publishers with AI companies without consulting their authors.
Examples include Taylor & Francis’ $10m deal with Microsoft whereby it will provide Microsoft with non-exclusive access to texts and will receive further undisclosed recurring payments to be paid over three years.
The Guild says: “Even in cases where the publisher obtained full copyright, the utilization of works for AI training or specialized AI mining goes far beyond the original intentions when the agreements were drafted….The Authors Guild believes that the right to license a work for AI training belongs to the author of the work unless the rights are expressly granted in an agreement. Even where the publication holds the copyright of the work, we believe that it is grossly unfair and unethical to train AI on any writer’s work without their permission.
“We call on all publishers who have signed licensing deals with AI companies to promptly offer opt-outs or compensation to all authors and journalists whose works have been included under the license.”