Latest news with #Ta-NehisiCoates
Irish Independent
09-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Irish Independent
Rick O'Shea: One of America's smartest political minds makes a brave admission about Israel
Ta-Nehisi Coates admits he has a problem with an article he wrote in 2014 in The Message, while Seán Hewitt's Open, Heaven feels like a classic and What a Time to be Alive by Jenny Mustard will appeal to Sally Rooney fans Today at 21:30 Don't ever let anyone tell you that turning 50 is hard; turning 50 is a doddle. For me, it involved an eight-month series of arm-chancing trips to New York, Portugal and Iceland after I made sad puppy eyes at my impossibly lovely and soft-hearted wife. This week I turned 52, an age that is so unremarkable it seems pointless to mention it, let alone celebrate it. That has never stopped me before. I went to London and thoroughly enjoyed Conor McPherson's new play The Brightening Air at the Old Vic, was baffled but sort of entertained anyway by Here We Are, Stephen Sondheim's last musical – or half a musical if you want to be accurate – at the National Theatre, and I finally got to see the joyfully fun and incredibly complicated staging of My Neighbour Totoro.
Express Tribune
05-04-2025
- Business
- Express Tribune
OpenAI and Microsoft face joint copyright litigation
Listen to article A series of high-profile copyright lawsuits against OpenAI and Microsoft have been consolidated into one legal proceeding in New York, despite objections from many of the authors and news organisations involved. The US judicial panel on multidistrict litigation issued a transfer order on Thursday, moving 12 lawsuits—including those filed in California by authors Ta-Nehisi Coates, Michael Chabon and Sarah Silverman—to the Southern District of New York. These will now be combined with other cases filed by the New York Times and authors such as John Grisham, Jonathan Franzen and Jodi Picoult. The order stated that the lawsuits share factual questions concerning allegations that the companies used copyrighted works, without consent or payment, to train large language models (LLMs) powering tools like OpenAI's ChatGPT and Microsoft's Copilot. 'Centralisation will allow a single judge to coordinate discovery, streamline pretrial proceedings, and eliminate inconsistent rulings,' the panel said. While plaintiffs had opposed the consolidation, arguing the claims were too distinct, the panel concluded that the complexity and overlap of technological and legal issues warranted unified handling. OpenAI welcomed the development. 'Our models are trained on publicly available data, grounded in fair use, and supportive of innovation,' a spokesperson said. In contrast, Steven Lieberman, lawyer for the Daily News, said the outlet would pursue claims of 'widespread theft of millions of Times and Daily News works.' The litigation comes amid broader concerns over AI's use of copyrighted material. Several authors involved in these suits have also filed complaints against Meta, accusing it of using the shadow library LibGen to train its models. On Thursday, authors protested outside Meta's London offices, criticising the company's handling of their work. Meanwhile, Amazon confirmed that its new AI-powered 'Recaps' feature for Kindle series is live, prompting concerns about the accuracy of generated summaries. In the UK, lawmakers are pressing the government over similar copyright issues, calling for a full economic assessment before moving forward with AI training exemptions.
The Guardian
04-04-2025
- Business
- The Guardian
US authors' copyright lawsuits against OpenAI and Microsoft combined in New York with newspaper actions
Twelve US copyright cases against OpenAI and Microsoft have been consolidated in New York, despite most of the authors and news outlets suing the companies being opposed to centralisation. A transfer order made by the US judicial panel on multidistrict litigation on Thursday said that centralisation will 'allow a single judge to coordinate discovery, streamline pretrial proceedings, and eliminate inconsistent rulings'. Cases brought in California by prominent authors including Ta-Nehisi Coates, Michael Chabon, Junot Díaz and the comedian Sarah Silverman will be transferred to New York and joined with cases brought by news outlets, including the New York Times, and other authors including John Grisham, George Saunders, Jonathan Franzen and Jodi Picoult. Most of the plaintiffs opposed consolidation, arguing that their cases were too different to be combined. However, the transfer order states that the cases 'share factual questions arising from allegations that OpenAI and Microsoft used copyrighted works, without consent or compensation, to train their large language models (LLMs) … which underlie defendants' generative artificial intelligence products' such as OpenAI's ChatGPT and Microsoft's Copilot. OpenAI had proposed consolidating the cases in northern California. The judicial panel ultimately transferred the cases to the southern district of New York, stating that centralisation would 'serve the convenience of the parties and witnesses' and 'promote the just and efficient conduct of this litigation'. 'Given the novel and complicated nature of the technology, there likely will be overlapping experts' across the cases, read the order. Consolidation will 'conserve the resources of the parties, their counsel and the judiciary'. Tech companies have argued that their use of copyrighted works to train AI is permitted under the doctrine of 'fair use', allowing the unauthorised use of copyrighted works under certain circumstances. An OpenAI spokesperson said: 'We welcome this development and look forward to making it clear in court that our models are trained on publicly available data, grounded in fair use, and supportive of innovation,' reported Reuters. Many of the prominent authors suing OpenAI have also sued Meta for copyright infringement in its training of AI models. A January court filing by Coates, Silverman and Díaz among others alleged that Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg approved the company's use of a notorious 'shadow library', LibGen, which contains more than 7.5m books. On Thursday, authors gathered outside the Meta offices in London to protest the company's use of copyrighted books. Placards at the demonstration included 'Get the Zuck off our books' and 'I'd write a better sign but you'd just steal it', according to trade magazine the Bookseller. Sign up to Bookmarks Discover new books and learn more about your favourite authors with our expert reviews, interviews and news stories. Literary delights delivered direct to you after newsletter promotion Thursday also saw Amazon confirm that a new Kindle feature, 'Recaps', offering users refreshers on storylines and character arcs of a book series to review before they pick up the next book, will be AI-generated. 'We use technology, including GenAI and Amazon moderators, to create short recaps of books that accurately reflect book content,' Amazon spokesperson Ale Iraheta told TechCrunch. 'By adding a new level of convenience to series reading, the Recaps feature enables readers to dive deeper into complex worlds and characters without losing the joy of discovery, all while ensuring an uninterrupted reading experience across every genre,' wrote the company in a blogpost. However, Reddit users raised concerns about the accuracy of AI-generated summaries. Earlier this week, it emerged that the UK government is trying to placate peer and Labour backbencher concerns about its copyright proposals – which involve allowing AI companies to train models on copyrighted materials unless rights holders opt out – by pledging to assess the economic impact of the plans.
The Guardian
25-03-2025
- Business
- The Guardian
‘No consent': Australian authors ‘livid' that Meta may have used their books to train AI
Australian authors say they are 'livid' and feel violated that their work was included in an allegedly pirated dataset of books Meta used to train its AI. The parent company of Facebook and Instagram is being sued by authors in the United States, including Ta-Nehisi Coates and the comedian Sarah Silverman, for copyright infringement. In court filings in January it was alleged chief executive Mark Zuckerberg approved the use of the LibGen dataset – an online archive of books – to train the company's artificial intelligence models despite warnings from his AI executive team that it is a dataset 'we know to be pirated'. Sign up for Guardian Australia's breaking news email The Atlantic has published a searchable database where authors can type in their name to see what of their work is included in LibGen dataset. It includes books published by many Australian authors, including some by former prime ministers Malcolm Turnbull, Kevin Rudd, Julia Gillard and John Howard. Holden Sheppard, the author of Invisible Boys, a hit young adult novel that has been adapted into a series on Stan, said two of his books and two short stories were included. He said he was 'fucking livid' to learn they could have been used to train Meta's AI. 'I am furious to learn my books have been again pirated and used without my consent to train a generative AI system which is not only unethical and illegal in its current form, but something I am vehemently opposed to,' he said. 'No consent has been obtained from any of the thousands of authors who have had our work taken, and not a single cent has been paid to any of us,' he said. 'Given Meta is worth literally billions, they are absolutely in a financial position to compensate authors fairly. More importantly, they are not above the law and are required to obtain consent.' He said the government needed to act on it now. 'We need AI-specific legislation introduced in Australia that requires generative AI developers or deployers to put in a range of measures to comply with existing copyright legislation.' Journalist and author Tracey Spicer said two of her books – The Good Girl Stripped Bare and Man-Made – are included. The latter deals with the rise of artificial intelligence. She said she felt violated when she realised her works were in the data set. 'It was a gut-punch. Authors don't make a lot of money, especially in a small market like Australia,' she said. 'This is peak technocapitalism.' She said there should be a class action in Australia, and urged authors to contact their local federal MPs. Sign up to Breaking News Australia Get the most important news as it breaks after newsletter promotion 'It's a bit rich for big tech to cry poor. These companies can afford to pay for content, or they can create synthetic datasets.' Alexandra Heller-Nicholas, an award-winning film critic and author of ten books on cult movies including 1000 Women in Horror and Cinema Coven, found eight of her books, as well as books she co-edited, included. 'It is no understatement that this is my lifetime's work. I'm upset, angry, but mostly exhausted,' she said. Heller-Nicholas also called for the federal government to act. The Australian Society of Authors has put a call out – on Facebook – for authors to get in contact to advocate on their behalf against the use of their works. The society's chair, Sophie Cunningham, said she had been in contact with dozens of authors who had their works included, and said there was generally an ill feeling about how it had been done. 'Massive corporations are profiting and reducing reducing writers to serfs,' she said. 'Most writers are lucky to get $18,000 per year … and they're not even having the right to be involved in which work [is used].' Cunningham said Meta was treating writers with contempt. Meta declined to comment, citing the ongoing litigation. The company has reportedly lobbied the Trump administration to declare, via executive order, that training AI on copyrighted data is fair use. Earlier this month, Melbourne publisher Black Inc Books caused concern among writers, literary agents and the industry's peak body when it asked its authors to consent to their work being used to train artificial intelligence. Some AI companies have begun entering into agreements with publishers for the use of their work, including OpenAI, which signed a deal with the Guardian in February for use of Guardian content in ChatGPT.
Yahoo
10-02-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Meta faces lawsuit for training AI with pirated books
In a recent lawsuit, Meta has been accused of using pirated books to train its AI models, with CEO Mark Zuckerberg's approval. As per Ars Technica, the lawsuit filed by authors including Ta-Nehisi Coates and Sarah Silverman in a California federal court, cite internal Meta communications indicating that the company utilized the Library Genesis (LibGen) dataset—a vast online repository known for hosting pirated books—despite internal concerns about the legality of using such material. The authors argue that Meta's actions infringe upon their copyrights and could undermine the company's position with regulators. They claim that Meta's AI models, including Llama, were trained using their works without permission, potentially harming their livelihoods. Meta has defended its practices by invoking the 'fair use' doctrine, asserting that using publicly available materials to train AI tools is legal in certain cases, such as 'using text to statistically model language and generate original expression.' One internal message highlighted in the lawsuit quotes an employee expressing discomfort, stating, 'Torrenting from a corporate laptop doesn't feel right.' In response to the lawsuit, U.S. District Judge Vince Chhabria dismissed some claims but allowed the authors to amend their complaint to include new allegations, including those related to the removal of copyright management information. This case is part of a broader wave of legal challenges against tech companies like Meta, OpenAI, and Anthropic, where authors and creators are seeking to protect their intellectual property rights in the face of rapidly advancing AI technologies. The outcome of this lawsuit could have significant implications for the tech industry, particularly concerning the use of copyrighted materials in AI training. It raises important questions about the balance between technological innovation and the protection of creators' rights.
