Authors Fight AI: Open Letter Demands Publishers’ Pledge
Writers Unite Against Generative AI in Publishing’s Future
In a bold move, over seventy authors are demanding that publishing houses commit to a crucial promise. They seek assurance that artificial intelligence will not be used to create books, fearing its impact on literature’s integrity and authors’ livelihoods. This open letter marks a significant turning point in the ongoing debate about AI’s place in creative fields.
Authors’ Plea to Publishers
An open letter, published on the literary website Lit Hub on Friday, was signed by a group of more than seventy authors. The letter implores publishing houses to guarantee they will never release books written entirely by machines. Addressed to the “big five” U.S. publishers — Penguin, Random House, HarperCollins, Simon & Schuster, Hachette Book Group, and Macmillan — and other American publishers, the letter quickly garnered more than 1,100 signatures.
Generative AI is transforming the publishing industry. Authors are pushing back on a variety of fronts, most recently with an open letter to publishers asking them to curtail their use of the technology. (Getty stock photo.)https://t.co/B1e0k4k012
— NPR (@NPR) March 3, 2024
“The writing that AI produces feels cheap because it is cheap. It feels simple because it is simple to produce. That is the whole point,”
—Open Letter
As of 2024, the global AI market is estimated to be worth over $150 billion, and is projected to grow rapidly (Statista). This highlights the scale of AI’s potential influence across all industries, including publishing.
What the Letter Demands
The letter outlines specific requests for publishers. These demands include refraining from publishing AI-generated books based on copyrighted content without consent or compensation, avoiding replacing employees with AI tools, and exclusively using human audiobook narrators, among other considerations.
Copyright Lawsuits
Previously, authors often addressed their concerns about AI’s negative effects on their work through lawsuits. Several prominent authors, including Ta-Nehisi Coates and Sarah Silverman, are involved in copyright infringement cases against AI developers. Recently, some federal judges ruled in favor of defendants, suggesting that AI companies might have the right to use copyrighted material to train their language models.
Rioghnach Robinson, also known as Riley Redgate, is one of the letter’s organizers. She believes these rulings make safeguarding more urgent. She hopes that publishers will act to protect authors.
