In a striking turn of events, well known author Sarah Silverman, Richard Kadrey and Christopher Golden have pursued legal action against Meta Platforms’ LLaMa and OpenAI’s ChatGPT. These plaintiffs allege copyright infringement, claiming that these tech giants utilised their copyrighted content without obtaining prerequisite permissions. According to the legal documentation, the authors’ copyrighted books appear in the dataset used by Meta to train LLaMa, its artificial intelligence system.
The lawsuit filed against OpenAI purports that when ChatGPT generates summaries of the authors’ work, it suggests the utilisation of the copyrighted data for training. In one of the more surprising twists, the suits claim that the companies acquired the copyrighted material from so-called “shadow libraries” – sites like Bibliotik, Library Genesis, Z-Library, where books are freely available through torrent systems. These platforms, while illegal, reportedly pique the interest of the AI-development community due to the vast quantity of copyrighted data they host.
On the flipside, these high-profile allegations shed light on the vital question surrounding the ethical boundaries of AI training. Particularly when it concerns copyrighted material. This opens a Pandora’s Box of potential violations not only by OpenAI and Meta but also by other tech firms engaged in AI technology development.
However, it is not only the individual rights of the authors considered violated; they also filed suits on behalf of copyright owners across America, highlighting the potential breadth of such alleged infringements. Neither OpenAI nor Meta have issued any public statements concerning the lawsuit.
As more authors and content creators become aware of these artificial intellegence systems’ capabilities and learning processes, will we see a surge in similar lawsuits? Furthermore, these cases prompt a debate over the use of “shadow libraries” as information sources. Can they legitimately represent an ethically acceptable source of information and training material for AI? The case has far-reaching implications for the entire blockchain and AI industry.
Finally, it’s noteworthy to remember the suit against Meta and OpenAI isn’t an isolated incidence of legal issues in the blockchain space. Coinbase, a well-known cryptocurrency exchange, currently faces a security violation lawsuit filed by the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). Despite that, the firm’s stock has been on the rise recently, adding more than 50% to its value since the SEC’s legal action started. This scenario posits several ramifications about investors’ confidence despite unresolved copyright and security issues in the sector.
Source: Cointelegraph
