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Two reports released Monday provide a mixed but compelling outlook on the wave of book removals and challenges as the annual Banned Books Week begins for schools, stores and libraries nationwide. The ALA attributed the decline in book challenges in the first eight months of 2024, in part, to the work of anti-censorship activists and “success in courts” against laws that restrict book access. “But, you know, the First Amendment protects the rights of minors as well.”While the ALA’s report shows signs of book challenges abating, objections to certain titles still persist. Like the ALA, PEN said a large portion of the books targeted have racial or LGBTQ themes. It is supported by the ALA, PEN, the Authors Guild, the National Book Foundation and more than a dozen other organizations.

Persons: “, ” Deborah Caldwell, Stone, ” Caldwell, Toni Morrison’s “, Maia Kobabe’s, George M, shouldn’t, abating, Judy Blume, Margaret Atwood, ”, Kasey Meehan Organizations: American Library Association, PEN, Intellectual, Labor, ALA, “, NBC, New College of Florida, Utah State Board of Education, Read, Book Foundation Locations: PEN America, Florida and Iowa, United States, Nassau County , Florida, Utah, Florida

☆ OpenAI's Scarlett Johansson saga reveals an 'ask forgiveness, not permission' problem
▼ + stars: | 2024-05-21 | by ( Hasan Chowdhury | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Read previewOpenAI's biggest critics have long held the view that Sam Altman's success has been built on an "ask forgiveness, not permission" strategy that could come back to haunt him. The ChatGPT maker has been embroiled in fresh controversy since Monday after Scarlett Johansson lashed out at the company over a new voice feature for its chatbot. her — Sam Altman (@sama) May 13, 2024OpenAI has responded to the criticism by pulling the Sky voice entirely. AdvertisementThough Johansson and Pichai have not filed lawsuits against OpenAI, the "ask forgiveness, not permission" strategy that critics accuse the company of has already landed it in legal hot water. Creators who suspect their work has been used to train OpenAI without their permission will probably wonder why they weren't offered an agreement in the first place.

Persons: —, Sam Altman's, Scarlett Johansson, Mr Altman, Johansson, ChatGPT, Altman, Theodore, Joaquin Phoenix, Sam Altman, OpenAI, Sundar Pichai, Pichai Organizations: Service, Business, NPR, OpenAI, YouTube, Authors, New York Times, Sony Music, Financial Times, Creators Locations: San Francisco

☆ TikTok is taking the US government to court in a showdown of free speech vs. national security
▼ + stars: | 2024-05-08 | by ( Dan Defrancesco | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

Sign up to get the inside scoop on today’s biggest stories in markets, tech, and business — delivered daily. download the app Email address Sign up By clicking “Sign Up”, you accept our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy . And the knock-on effects extend beyond TikTok, impacting everything from President Joe Biden's reelection campaign to Apple and Tesla . AdvertisementTikTok, Tyler Le/BIThe TikTok-US government fight pits two pillars of American society against each other: free speech and national security. 3 things in businessDeliormanli/Getty, Olivier Verriest/Getty, Andrei Akushevich/Getty, Tyler Le/BIIn other newsAdvertisementWhat's happening todayToday's earnings: Airbnb, Uber, and other companies are reporting .

Persons: —, swiping, Tyler Le, ByteDance, Dan Whateley, Geoff Weiss, Joe Biden's, It'll, TikTok, hasn't, haven't, Fallon, Jane Fraser isn't, Fraser, Piper Sandler, Michael Kantrowitz, Josh Edelson, Isabel Fernandez, Mark Zuckerberg, Zuckerberg, Getty, Olivier Verriest, Andrei Akushevich, Dan DeFrancesco, Jordan Parker Erb, Hallam Bullock, George Glover Organizations: Business, Service, Apple, Chinese Communist Party, Big Tech, Getty, Pujol, Associated Press, Facebook Locations: France, China, Beijing, Citadel, Millennium, AFP, New York, London

☆ OpenAI destroyed a trove of books used to train AI models. The employees who collected the data are gone.
▼ + stars: | 2024-05-07 | by ( Darius Rafieyan | Hasan Chowdhury | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Lawyers for the Authors Guild said in court filings that the datasets likely contained "more than 100,000 published books" and are central to its allegations that OpenAI used copyrighted materials to train AI models. OpenAI and other companies used data from the internet, including many books, to build these models. The startup has since identified the employees to lawyers for the Authors Guild but has not publicly disclosed their names. The Authors Guild has opposed this, arguing for the public's right to know. Advertisement"The models powering ChatGPT and our API today were not developed using these datasets," OpenAI said in a statement on Tuesday.

Persons: OpenAI, King James Organizations: Service, OpenAI, Business, Tech, Guild

☆ 'Game of Thrones' author George R.R. Martin and other writers sue ChatGPT's maker claiming copyright infringement: 'Generative AI threatens to decimate the author profession'
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-21 | by ( Aaron Mok | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

Martin and other authors are suing ChatGPT owner OpenAI claiming copyright infringement. It follows a series of lawsuits writers launched against OpenAI over similar accusations. This latest lawsuit joins a series of legal disputes that writers have launched against OpenAI on similar accusations of copyright infringement. Associated Press, for instance, struck a two-year agreement with OpenAI that gives the AI company permission to train ChatGPT on its archive of news stories. As for the Authors Guild, writers "must have the ability to control if and how their works are used by generative AI," Authors Guild CEO Mary Rasenberger wrote in a statement.

Persons: George R.R, Martin, OpenAI, —, John Grisham, Mona Awad, Paul Tremblay, Weeks, Sarah Silverman —, Christophe Golden, Richard Kadrey —, It's, Mary Rasenberger, Rasenberger Organizations: Service, OpenAI, of, Hollywood, The New York Times, Stability, Getty, Associated Press, Authors Guild Locations: Wall, Silicon, ChatGPT, Southern, of New York

A keyboard is placed in front of a displayed OpenAI logo in this illustration taken February 21, 2023. In addition to Microsoft-backed (MSFT.O) OpenAI, similar lawsuits are pending against Meta Platforms and Stability AI over the data used to train their AI systems. Other authors involved in the latest lawsuit include "The Lincoln Lawyer" writer Michael Connelly and lawyer-novelists David Baldacci and Scott Turow. The complaint said ChatGPT generated accurate summaries of the authors' books when prompted, indicating that their text is included in its database. It also cited growing concerns that authors could be replaced by systems like ChatGPT that "generate low-quality ebooks, impersonating authors and displacing human-authored books."

Persons: Dado Ruvic, OpenAI, John Grisham, Jonathan Franzen, George Saunders, Jodi Picault, George R.R, Martin, Michael Connelly, David Baldacci, Scott Turow ., Mary Rasenberger, Blake Brittain, David Bario, Daniel Wallis Organizations: REUTERS, Microsoft, Authors, Meta, Lincoln, Thomson Locations: Manhattan, Washington

☆ George R. R. Martin, Jodi Picoult and other famous writers join Authors Guild in class action lawsuit against OpenAI
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-20 | by ( Jennifer Korn | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +4 min

New York CNN —A group of famous fiction writers joined the Authors Guild in filing a class action suit against OpenAI on Wednesday, alleging the company’s technology is illegally using their copyrighted work. Martin, Jodi Picoult, John Grisham and Jonathan Franzen are among the 17 prominent authors who joined the suit led by the Authors Guild, a professional organization that protects writers’ rights. “Generative AI threatens to decimate the author profession,” the Authors Guild wrote in a press release Wednesday. Two other authors sued OpenAI in June over the company’s alleged misuse of their works to train ChatGPT. Authors should have the right to decide when their works are used to ‘train’ AI,” author Jonathan Franzen said in the release on Wednesday.

Persons: OpenAI, George R.R, Martin, Jodi Picoult, John Grisham, Jonathan Franzen, Mary Rasenberger, “, Sarah Silverman, Silverman –, ” Sam Altman, Rasenberger, James Patterson, Roxane Gay, Margaret Atwood —, ” Organizations: New, New York CNN, OpenAI, Authors, of, CNN, Amazon, Meta, San, Microsoft Locations: New York, Southern, of New York, San Francisco federal

NEW YORK (AP) — John Grisham, Jodi Picoult and George R.R. Martin are among 17 authors suing OpenAI for “systematic theft on a mass scale,” the latest in a wave of legal action by writers concerned that artificial intelligence programs are using their copyrighted works without permission. “Great books are generally written by those who spend their careers and, indeed, their lives, learning and perfecting their crafts. The online giant is now asking writers who want to publish through its Kindle Direct Program to notify Amazon in advance that they are including AI-generated material. Amazon is also limiting authors to three new self-published books on Kindle Direct per day, an effort to restrict the proliferation of AI texts.

Persons: — John Grisham, Jodi Picoult, George R.R, Martin, OpenAI, David Baldacci, Sylvia Day, Jonathan Franzen, Elin Hilderbrand, Mary Rasenberger, Direwolves, Michael Chabon, David Henry Hwang, ”, Sarah Silverman, Paul Tremblay, “ Organizations: Authors, Amazon, Kindle Locations: New York, U.S, San Francisco, California

☆ John Grisham, George R.R. Martin and other prominent authors sue OpenAI
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-20 | by ( Hayden Field | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

A group of prominent U.S. authors, including Jonathan Franzen, John Grisham, George R.R. Martin and Jodi Picoult, has sued OpenAI over alleged copyright infringement in using their work to train ChatGPT. In July, two authors filed a similar lawsuit against OpenAI, alleging that their books were used to train the company's chatbot without their consent. In January, Stability AI, Midjourney and DeviantArt were hit with a class-action lawsuit over copyright claims in their AI image generators. Microsoft, GitHub and OpenAI are involved in a proposed class-action lawsuit, filed in November, which alleges that the companies scraped licensed code to train their code generators.

Persons: Sam Altman, OpenAI, Chuck Schumer, Jonathan Franzen, John Grisham, George R.R, Martin, Jodi Picoult Organizations: Intelligence, Senate, U.S, Capitol, Washington , D.C, Authors Guild, OpenAI, Getty, Microsoft Locations: Washington ,, Manhattan

The Authors Guild lawsuit is the latest in a series brought by writers against OpenAI. “It knew everything, and that’s when I got a bad feeling.”A representative for OpenAI did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Since OpenAI introduced ChatGPT in November, authors, publishers and retailers have been trying to rein in the rampant and increasingly disruptive incursion of A.I. Amazon has taken steps to monitor and curb the influx of A.I.-generated books. to its customers, but it may do so in the future, according to an Amazon representative.

Persons: David Baldacci, Jodi Picoult, George R.R, Martin, George Saunders, Michael Connelly, Douglas Preston, ChatGPT, “, ‘, ”, OpenAI Organizations: OpenAI, York Mycological Society Locations: A.I

☆ The US Copyright Office just took a big step toward new rules for generative AI
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-30 | by ( Kali Hays | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

The US Copyright Office is taking a big step toward new rules for generative AI. AdvertisementAdvertisementThe US Copyright Office is inching closer to creating new rules and regulations around generative AI and how the technology uses the work of authors and other creators. In the government rule-making process, a public comment period typically happens before a final rule is proposed and adopted. The major tech companies behind these generative AI tools use the crawled data to train their models without paying the creators who produced the original content. More online businesses are slowly becoming aware of the degree to which the web is being scraped for the benefit of generative AI.

Persons: OpenAI's ChatGPT, Google Bard, Andreessen Horowitz, Bard Organizations: Morning, US, Google, Microsoft, Meta, New York Times, CNN, Office, Hollywood

☆ Stephen King won't forbid AI from training on his writing, and he's not afraid of AI ... yet
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-26 | by ( Jordan Hart | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

King said that he's not opposed to programmers using his works to teach AI about creativity. Thousands of other authors have objected to their work being used in AI without permission. Uploading the works of others to computers, or "state-of-the-art digital blenders" as he put it, can teach AI how to produce better art. AdvertisementAdvertisementKing said that forbidding programmers from using his to teach AI is essentially pointless. Or a Luddite trying to stop industrial progress by hammering a steam loom to pieces," King wrote.

Persons: Stephen King, King, he's, Margaret Atwood, James Patterson, Sam Altman, OpenAI, Mark Zuckerberg, Sundar Pichai, King Canute Organizations: The Atlantic, Morning, Authors, Apple

☆ An author says AI is ‘writing’ unauthorized books being sold under her name on Amazon
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-10 | by ( Clare Duffy | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +5 min

Others have said they don’t want their work being used to train AI models, which could then be used to imitate them. Amazon removed the fake books being sold under Friedman’s name and said its policies prohibit such imitation. Author Jane Friedman found several books being sold under her name on Amazon, only she didn't write them — she suspects artificial intelligence did. The Authors Guild has been working with Amazon since this past winter to address the issue of books written by AI, Rasenberger said. And, she said, companies and publishers should continue investing in creative work made by humans, even if AI appears more convenient.

Persons: Jane Friedman, I’ve, ” Friedman, —, ” Mary Rasenberger, Rasenberger, James Patterson, Roxane Gay, Margaret Atwood —, OpenAI, Friedman, they’d, Ashley Vanicek, ”, Suzanne Skyvara Organizations: New, New York CNN, Amazon, CNN, Authors, Microsoft, Twitter Locations: New York

☆ James Patterson, Margaret Atwood, and 8,000 other authors want AI companies to pay them for using their works
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-19 | by ( Kai Xiang Teo | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

There has been deepening criticism of AI companies from across the media and entertainment industries. Over 8,000 authors — including Margaret Atwood and James Patterson — have signed an open letter demanding compensation from AI companies for using their works to train AI without permission. The letter is addressed to OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, Stability AI CEO Emad Mostaque, IBM CEO Arvind Krishna, and Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella. AI systems are trained on large volumes of data, much of which is text scraped from the internet. These authors aren't alone in voicing collective discontent towards AI companies.

Persons: Margaret Atwood, James Patterson —, Sam Altman, Sundar Pichai, Mark Zuckerberg, Emad Mostaque, Arvind Krishna, Satya Nadella, Guild's, Dan Brown, Suzanne Collins —, OpenAI, Sarah Silverman, aren't, —, Sarah Andersen —, they've, Insider's Matthew Loh Organizations: Morning, Microsoft, Wall Street Journal, Google, IBM

☆ Thousands of authors demand payment from AI companies for use of copyrighted works
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-19 | by ( Brian Fung | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +3 min

Washington CNN —Thousands of published authors are requesting payment from tech companies for the use of their copyrighted works in training artificial intelligence tools, marking the latest intellectual property critique to target AI development. In an open letter they signed, posted by the Authors Guild Tuesday, the writers accused AI companies of unfairly profiting from their work. “Millions of copyrighted books, articles, essays, and poetry provide the ‘food’ for AI systems, endless meals for which there has been no bill,” the letter said. “The high commerciality of your use argues against fair use,” the authors wrote to the AI companies. In May, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman appeared to acknowledge more needs to be done to address concerns from creators about how AI systems use their works.

Persons: Margaret Atwood, Dan Brown, Michael Chabon, Jonathan Franzen, James Patterson, Jodi Picoult, Philip Pullman, “, OpenAI, didn’t, Sarah Silverman, Margaret Atwood Rich Fury, Monika Skolimowska, Goldsmith, Andy Warhol, Prince, Warhol, Sam Altman, “ We’re, ”, –, Catherine Thorbecke Organizations: Washington CNN, Facebook, Google, IBM, Microsoft, OpenAI, Meta, Warhol

☆ 2 authors say OpenAI 'ingested' their books to train ChatGPT. Now they're suing, and a 'wave' of similar court cases may follow.
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-09 | by ( Gabriel Rivera | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Two writers are suing OpenAI, accusing the company of ingesting their books to train ChatGPT. A law professor anticipates more lawsuits involving copyright law and generative AI in the future. Two award-winning authors recently sued OpenAI, accusing the generative-AI bastion of violating copyright law by using their published books to train ChatGPT without their consent. The suit is the latest example of tension between creatives and generative AI tools capable of producing text and images in seconds. Daniel Gervais, a law professor at Vanderbilt University, told Insider that the writers' lawsuit is one of a handful of copyright cases against generative AI tools nationwide.

Persons: OpenAI, Mona Awad, Paul Tremblay, Daniel Gervais, Gervais, Awad, Andres Guadamuz, Guadamuz, Tremblay Organizations: Morning, Vanderbilt University, University of Sussex, Guardian, Big Tech Locations: US, Northern California

☆ This is why comedian Sarah Silverman is suing OpenAI, the company behind ChatGPT
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-09 | by ( Alia Shoaib | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Comedian Sarah Silverman is one of three authors suing the company behind ChatGPT. Comedian Sarah Silverman is suing the company behind ChatGPT, alleging copyright infringement of her book. Silverman is one of three authors who are suing OpenAI, the company that created the AI chatbot, according to the court documents seen by Insider. Sarah Silverman brings case against AI company, ChatGPT. The other plaintiffs are writer Christopher Golden, whose copyrighted books include "Ararat," a supernatural thriller, and writer Richard Kadrey, whose copyrighted books include the dark, urban fantasy "Sandman Slim."

Persons: Sarah Silverman, Silverman, OpenAI, ChatGPT, Christopher Golden, Richard Kadrey, Slim, Daniel Gervais Organizations: Morning, Vanderbilt University, Big Tech Locations: Ararat, US

☆ More than 200 books in Amazon's bookstore have ChatGPT listed as an author or coauthor
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-22 | by ( Beatrice Nolan | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

A buzzy new author has become a familiar presence in Amazon's bookstore — OpenAI's ChatGPT. The chatbot is credited as an author or coauthor for more than 200 paperbacks and e-books. At the time of writing, the buzzy chatbot developed by OpenAI was credited as the author or coauthor on more than 200 paperbacks and e-books in Amazon's bookstore. One paperback where the bot is listed as a coauthor, "ChatGPT on ChatGPT: The AI Explains Itself," was described as having been "written entirely" by the AI bot. Reshi self-published "Alice and Sparkle" as a paperback on Amazon's bookstore for free via a service called KDP.

☆ ChatGPT launches boom in AI-written e-books on Amazon
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-21 | by ( Greg Bensinger | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +8 min

In the edition, Sammy the Squirrel, crudely rendered also using AI, learns from his forest friends about saving money after happening upon a gold coin. While that may not sound like much, it is enough to inspire him to compose other books using the software. There were over 200 e-books in Amazon’s Kindle store as of mid-February listing ChatGPT as an author or co-author, including "How to Write and Create Content Using ChatGPT," "The Power of Homework" and poetry collection "Echoes of the Universe." There is even a new sub-genre on Amazon: Books about using ChatGPT, written entirely by ChatGPT. In the video, White says anyone with the wherewithal and time could create 300 such books a year, all using AI.

Many were especially wary of Penguin Random House — already by far the largest publisher in the United States — getting even bigger by absorbing a rival. Penguin Random House has about 100 imprints; together they publish more than 2,000 titles a year. The merger would have given it Simon & Schuster’s approximately 50 imprints, as well as the company’s vast and valuable backlist of older titles. “The market is already too consolidated,” said Mary Rasenberger, chief executive of the Authors Guild, an advocacy group for writers that opposed the purchase. The company’s recent performance has been strong, even as the results have sagged at other major publishers.

Persons: Simon, Schuster —, United States —, Schuster’s, ”, Mary Rasenberger, Simon & Schuster Organizations: Random, HarperCollins, Macmillan, Hachette, Penguin, United States, Justice Department, Guild, Simon & Locations: United

☆ Forget about making money. Here’s what it takes to write a book
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-03 | by ( Bob Pisani | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +5 min

If you want an idea of how ridiculous the book publishing industry is, look no further than the proposed Penguin Random House-Simon & Schuster merger. Penguin Random House has said it would appeal. A 2018 survey of 5,067 authors conducted by the Authors Guild found that the median income of the authors surveyed had fallen to $6,080 in 2017. Earnings from book income alone was a paltry $3,100, indicating that authors were supplementing their incomes through speaking engagements, book reviewing, or teaching. The Authors Guild report notes the explosive growth of alternative ways for consumers to spend their time (video and streaming).

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