Two separate lawsuits have been merged into one. Filed against Facebook and Instagram by comedian Sarah Silverman, Pulitzer Prize winner Michael Chabon, and another prominent author. They claim that Meta used their works to train its AI language model, LLaMA, without permission.
Meta Violates Copyrights
Meta is alleged to have used thousands of pirated books to train its AI models, according to a new lawsuit filed on Monday night (December 11). The tech giant does this despite warnings from its lawyers about the legal risks of doing so. The lawsuit was filed last summer, according to Reuters.
Chat Records Reveal Meta’s Knowledge of Copyright Infringement
As evidence, the authors provided Discord chat logs of a researcher linked to Meta, in which he discusses obtaining the dataset. This could be a key piece of evidence that may prove Meta was aware that using the books may not be protected under U.S. copyright law.
LLaMA: Meta’s Large Language Model
LLaMA is Meta’s large language model (LLM). The tech company released its first version in February 2023. At that time, it published a list of the datasets used to train the language model. The list includes “Books Section 3 from ThePile,” which contains 196,640 books according to the complaint citing the individual who compiled the dataset.
AI and Copyrights
With the rise of artificial intelligence, artists across various fields have come forward to claim illegal use of their content. In 2023, major tech companies faced a wave of lawsuits accusing them of violating protected copyrights. If these lawsuits are successful, it will not only generate significant compensation for content creators but will also raise the cost of building models that rely on data, somewhat dampening the enthusiasm around creative AI.
Mohita Kaur Garg
“Words are, in my humble opinion, our most inexhaustible source of magic. Capable of both inflicting injury and remedying it.” – Albus Dumbledore (J.K. Rowling)
As a lover of the Harry Potter series, Mohita firmly believes that words hold an inexhaustible magic, which is why she chose journalism. She enjoys writing articles about science, technology, politics, and trending news topics, and tweets at @MoohitaKaurGarg.
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