For some time, there have been several AI copyright lawsuits brought by rights holders against tech firms, each focusing on how they trained their generative models and whether they breached copyright in doing so. Now, twelve of those cases have been consolidated, including the highest profile of all—the one brought by (inter alia) Sarah Silverman and Ta-Nehisi Coates—during which Meta’s now-infamous internal comms about LibGen were released.
ALLi News Editor Dan Holloway
The consolidation comes as the result of a “transfer order” (I was today years old when I learned such a thing exists, and I am continuously grateful that reporting carries on expanding my knowledge of the judicial process across the globe). The consolidated cases will be heard in New York.
The plaintiffs involved had argued against bringing the cases together on the grounds of their differences, but the judicial panel felt that there were enough common points for there to be value in doing so. OpenAI, on the other hand, welcomed the decision. I am not sure that bodes well.
Authors Push Back Outside Meta HQ
It comes as authors gathered in London outside Meta’s HQ there to protest against the company’s use of LibGen. As The Bookseller reports the event, there were many wittily compiled placards—as befits the constituency involved—including the likes of “I’d write a better sign but you’d just steal it.”
Protesters came with a letter. There is also a petition demanding Meta be summoned to Parliament to account for their use of the shadow library.
Study Supports Authors’ Concerns
As an interesting backdrop to this, TechCrunch has reported on a new study led by the University of Washington that found evidence platforms had trained AI models on copyrighted material.
Their methodology seems fairly similar to the logic deployed by many authors who have argued that certain responses to prompts are far and away best explained by having resulted from training on certain texts.
The study looked for unexpected word uses that were found in copyrighted works. While the study is obviously limited in scope, it’s an interesting addition to the landscape.
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