5 publishers, author sue Meta over alleged use of copyrighted works to train AI

Five major publishers and a bestselling author have reportedly filed a class-action lawsuit against Meta and its chief executive, Mark Zuckerberg, alleging the unauthorised use of copyrighted material to train the company’s artificial intelligence model.

As per a report by ‘The New York Times’, the lawsuit was filed on Tuesday in the US District Court for the Southern District of New York by publishers including Hachette, Macmillan, McGraw-Hill, Elsevier and Cengage, along with novelist Scott Turow.

The plaintiffs allege that Meta used their copyrighted works without permission to train its AI model, Llama, and that copyright notices were removed from the material during the process. The complaint further claims that Zuckerberg authorised the use of such content despite concerns over infringement.

The lawsuit also raises concerns about the downstream use of the technology, alleging that users are employing the AI system to generate books based on the training data derived from copyrighted works.

In response, a Meta spokesperson reportedly said that artificial intelligence is driving innovation and productivity, and argued that courts have recognised that training AI systems on copyrighted material can fall under “fair use”.

The company said it intends to fight the lawsuit.