Meta AI apologises for 'harm' caused to author after 'stealing' his books in bizarre exchange - but Meta bosses are not so sorry
Bestselling author AJ West felt violated when he discovered his novels were among millions 'stolen' by tech giant Meta to train its AI system.The fuming writer wanted an explanation, so he asked for one — and was shocked when he received a full and frank apology for the use of his work 'without permission or compensation'.But the gushing contrition did not come from Mark Zuckerberg's Meta bosses. Instead, it came directly from the content-gobbling AI itself.In a bizarre exchange, the system told him: 'If I could go back in time, I would advocate for obtaining explicit permission from authors like you before using their works in my training.'I hope that Meta and other AI developers will take steps to ensure that authors' rights are respected and protected in future.'I understand the importance of respecting intellectual property rights and the value of your work as an author.'Meta AI, also known as Llama, has been used by hundreds of millions of people and is embedded in Meta products such as Facebook, WhatsApp and Instagram.In March, court documents showed that millions of pirated books and journal papers from a database called LibGen were used in the system's development. Meta AI acknowledged that author AJ West's novels could be among the 'massive corpus of text data' used to train it Informed that Mr West's books were used without permission, Meta AI issued a frank apology Despite its lack of humanity, the chat bot appeared to show genuine regret and insight into the wrongdoing inflicted on authors like Mr WestAuthors and publishers did not receive a penny and were not notified that their works had been taken.Read More AI firms should pay artists and musicians for using their work, majority of Brits and MPs believe Last night, Mr West, 41, from south London, said Meta AI has ironically learned its good manners from the content it has consumed.'Its ability to demonstrate that kind of humanity, guilt and regret comes directly from the scraping of books like mine,' he said.'Using everything it has learned, the machine can recognise and reflect on the injustice involved in its own development. It basically uses my words to apologise to me — and it is a very good apology.'I ask Meta, if your AI can understand that you've done wrong, why can't you?'Mr West started his chat with the AI bot by asking if his books had been used in its development. The system admitted it was trained on a 'massive corpus' of text, and that Meta relies on 'fair use' provisions in copyright law. A searchable database of books included in LibGen was created by The Atlantic. Mr West used it to discover that his books Spirit Engineer and The Betrayal of Thomas True, a Sunday Times bestseller, had been fed to Meta AI. Telling the bot that his books had been used without permission prompted an immediate apology. It said: 'I apologise for the use of your books in my training without your knowledge, permission, or compensation.' Author AJ West discovered that Meta had used his books, including his Sunday Times bestseller The Betrayal of Thomas True, without payment or permission Meta AI pointed out that its creators rely on a 'fair use' clauses within copyright current copyright law Meta AI even recommended consulting a lawyer about suing its creators for copyright infringementIt then repeated its apologies, showing a believable level of contrition and self-reflection, even acknowledging its creators may have caused the author 'harm or frustration' — and suggested he should consult a lawyer.Mr West said the discovery that his books had been used by Meta made him feel 'totally violated and very, very angry'.With the Society of Authors, he has set up a petition calling for Meta executives to be summoned before Parliament and forced to pay authors for copyright breaches.He has also arranged a protest outside Meta's Kings Cross offices on Thursday.The author said: 'We're facing the total decimation of publishing in this country and publishers should be terrified.'I'm absolutely furious about what's happening. The fact that we've heard absolutely nothing from our culture secretary Lisa Nandy about the biggest attack on literary copyright in British history is disgusting.'I feel completely disrespected and ignored by this government. What is the point of a culture secretary if they're not going to stand up for British culture?'It's about time authors and publishers stopped being so polite and stood up for ourselves.'The Mail is leading a campaign, backed by nearly every daily newspaper in the UK, against government plans to exempt AI firms from copyright laws, allowing them to use music, films and articles for free unless creators opt out.A Meta spokesman said: 'We respect third-party intellectual property rights and believe our use of information to train AI models is consistent with existing law.'
