APPLETON (NBC 26) — It's not the law to whisper at the library, but it's what people do to show their respect for others.
So, imagine if a billion-dollar tech company like Facebook walked into a library and used every authors' books to help train its Artificial Intelligence systems without the authors' consent.
It would kind of be like grabbing every book in the library and then reading it as loud as you can.
It might not be illegal, but most people would argue it's not respectful.
An Appleton author says she recently discovered that Meta did just that, and she wants answers and the respect that she and other authors deserve.
"This impacts almost every author I know, especially if a book has been out for more than two years. Chances are they're on this pirated list," said Appleton author, Rebecca M. Zornow.
Zornow is a science fiction author, and she recently discovered through an article published in The Atlantic that her three published books were pirated to an illegal online archive called LibGen or Library Genesis.
According to a new class action lawsuit, CEO Mark Zuckerberg approved Meta using LibGen to help train Meta's AI systems.
"It's disappointing of course to learn your book has been stolen and uploaded to an illegal website," Dorrow said.
"When you first found out that your work had been used for that, what went through your mind," Mac asked.
"It really brought a worry to the forefront," Zornow responded.
Zornow says she filed a cease-and-desist order to try and help turn the page on this problem.
"And really, these large companies like Facebook, they should be working within the same ethical boundaries we all are," Zornow added.
However, according to a Meta spokesperson, the company isn't breaking any existing laws, and they issued a statement that reads,"We respect third-party intellectual property rights and believe our use of information to train AI models is consistent with existing law."
"It feels wrong," responded.
"I've added the standard language to the front of the book about it not being available to generative AI," Zornow says.
Zornow says she's not completely against Artificial Intelligence, sharing how programs like "spellcheck" can be helpful, but she doesn't want big tech companies to use her work to train their AI systems—without any attribution or compensation.
"I think at the forefront of our minds is we want to see tech companies held accountable. Locally—what this means for us as a community—is we won't be able to sustain a population of creative writers if we allow tech companies to steal their work," Zornow says.
Since Zornow is saying her work was used by Meta without her permission to train its AI, she is now automatically included in a class action lawsuit that's already been filed out of northern California by a group of authors.
So, it could be up to the court to decide whether Meta ever broke any copyright laws, or it's a matter that could ultimately be settled out of court.
Please stay NBC 26 as we continue to follow the latest developments involving generative AI.
