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TEXT 3-These books are being used to train Al. No one told the authors.
Almost 200,000 books are being used to train artificial intelligence systems by some of
the biggest companies in technology
. The problem? No one told the authors
The system is called Books3, and
according to an investigation by The Atlantic, the data
set is based on a collection of pirated e-books
spanning all genres, from erotic fiction to
prose poetry. Books help generative Al
systems with learning how to communicate
information.
Books3 is already the subject of multiple lawsuits against Meta and other companies
using the system to train Al.
Now, thanks to a database published by The Atlantic last week pulling from Books3,
authors can see whether their books
specifically are being used to train these Al
systems. And many are not happy.
"I'm completely gutted and whipsawed. I am outraged and at the same time feel utterly
helpless," wrote Mary H. K. Chol on social media,
upon discovering her work was being
used. "I'm furious and want to fight but I'm also so tired
."
Min Jin Lee, author of novels "Pachinko" and "Free Food for Millionaires," expressed
similar thoughts on social media, bluntly calling
the use of her books "a theft."
"I spent three decades of my life to write 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
."
The exploitation of writers didn't shock author Nik Sharma, whose cookbook "Season"
was found in the database.
"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 Al."
Al is inevitable, Sharma said later in an email - hence his lack of surprise. What was
most aggravating, he said, is that
no one was contacted about usage or payment. After
all, education isn't free in the US, he
said; teachers are paid, and textbooks are bought.

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