Susan Orlean wasn’t surprised when she found out last year that several of her bestselling books had been used to train AI models.
She was indignant.
“Like I found out someone had Xeroxed copies of my book and had sold them at great profit,” the bestselling journalist and author told NPR.
Orlean, along with Walter Isaacson and Viet Thanh Nguyen, is among a growing group of bestselling authors in support of Created by Humans. The new online marketplace, which launched publicly this week in partnership with the writers’ advocacy nonprofit The Authors Guild, aims to give authors more control over how their books are used by artificial intelligence companies.
The partnership illustrates how the AI rights licensing space is opening up, even as some authors continue to sue developers for allegedly training their AI programs on pirated literary works.
Orlean is a named plaintiff in a class action copyright infringement lawsuit against the AI developers who allegedly stole her work. Other authors including George RR Martin, Sarah Silverman and Jodi Picoult have launched similar actions.
Orlean said it’s not that she’s opposed to AI technology.
“I suspect that AI will have great value to us in many ways,” the author said.
She simply wants more control over how it’s used in relation to her work.
“First of all, you give permission. Secondly, you are compensated,” Orlean said. “Thirdly, you are aware of how and where the work is being used.”
More control for writers
Unless writers transfer the copyright to another party in a signed agreement, they themselves hold the rights to their literary works.
As such, Created by Humans enables authors to add their books to an online marketplace. Writers can opt in or out of the various types of AI rights. They would then get paid when AI companies use their content.
Authors Guild CEO Mary Rasenberger said her nonprofit decided to partner with Created by Humans because of the control it could give writers.
“You have a chance to review the actual terms of any potential deal,” she said.
And the startup’s contract is non-exclusive. So writers could sell AI licensing rights through other channels too.
“Right now there’s this enormous gap between the world of AI and the world of creators. And a lot of books have been been trained on by AI companies without the permission of authors,” said Trip Adler, Created by Humans co-founder and CEO. “We’re positioning ourselves as the company that’s going to solve this problem.”
An alternative to litigation
So far, the solution has mostly revolved around individual agreements between big publishers and AI developers. For example, Microsoft has a deal to use nonfiction works published by HarperCollins for AI model training.
Created by Humans is in talks with AI companies. No deals have been made yet. Adler said his platform will help these companies navigate the complex licensing landscape.
“We want to just make it very simple,” Adler said. “So AI companies can just get the content they need and just focus on innovation.”
It’s unclear whether AI companies will sign on to the platform at this stage. The several NPR reached out to for comment did not immediately respond.
But Rebecca Finlay, the CEO of Partnership on AI, a tech nonprofit which counts Amazon, Google and Microsoft among its founders, said while the courts will eventually decide how literary works are protected and used, the AI rights licensing model is useful to the industry in the meantime.
“It offers a clear set of terms and principles on which to use these works,” Finlay said.
Getting writers engaged
One third of authors recently surveyed by The Authors Guild expressed willingness to license their works. But the remainder were not willing — or were unsure.
Against this backdrop, bestselling author Bruce Barcott said he is on a mission to get more buy-in from the literary community.
“AI is here and it is not going away,” Barcott said. “Let’s make it equitable for everybody.”
Barcott, who said he has had three of his nonfiction books scraped by AI companies, has been helping the nonprofit Transparency Coalition develop state legislation like the California AI Data Transparency Act. It makes AI companies disclose all of the sources used to train their large language models.
He also hosted a discussion for writers in January in Seattle about AI licensing rights. It included discussion about Created by Humans.
Barcott said he’s adding his books to Created by Humans.
It remains to be seen how much money authors will actually make on the platform and how well their work will be protected. Susan Orlean described the protections afforded by the platform at this point as “conceptual rather than actual.” “But,” the author added. “So is most of Western law.”
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