Charting Gen AI

Ten thousand authors protest AI theft with publication of empty book

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Almost 10,000 authors unite to publish 'empty' in protest over AI stealing their work

Daily Mail

Nearly 10,000 authors publish empty book to protest against AI stealing their work

Authors including Richard Osman and Malorie Blackman publish 'empty' book in AI protest

EuroNews

'Don’t Steal This Book': Authors protest AI at London Book Fair with ‘empty’ book

NDTV

'Don't Steal This Book': Thousands Of Authors Release 'Empty' Book At London Book Fair In Protest Against AI

Guardian

Thousands of authors publish empty book in protest over AI using their work

Publishers' Licensing Services

Publishers' Licensing Services (PLS).

Computing.co.uk

Writers protest theft by AI companies, while Publishers Licensing Services suggests a way forward

Metaculus

I Safety Law Enacted In The Us In 2026

Elon Musk

Rishi Sunak

Kamala Harris

Bill Gates

Andrew Ng

Yoshua Bengio

Fei-Fei Li

Demis Hassabis

Melanie Mitchell

Sam Altman

Dario Amodei

Geoffrey Hinton

Yann LeCun

Gary Marcus

Max Tegmark

Connor Leahy

Eliezer Yudkowsky

Jaan Tallinn

Marc Andreessen

Eric Schmidt

Norbert Wiener

Arthur Clarke

Irving John Good

Claude Shannon

Hans Moravec

John Smart

There's a "wall of fear-mongering and doomerism" in the AI world right now.

"Worrying about AI today is like worrying about overpopulation on Mars."

Concerns that AI could pose a threat to humanity is "preposterously ridiculous."

Claiming AI poses an existential threat is "such an extreme" and risks "wip[ing] out some of its potential benefits."

"I'm more concerned about... the risks that are here and now [than the existential threat of AI]."

Current AI is "not anywhere close" to posing an existential threat but it could in the future.

AI is the "biggest existential threat" to humanity.

AGI's worst-case scenario would be "lights-out for all of us."

Powerful AI systems "taking control" pose an "existential threat."

AI has a "10 to 25 per cent" chance of destroying humanity.

"The most likely result of building a superhumanly smart AI... is that literally everyone on Earth will die."

Does AI Pose an Existential Threat to Humanity?

Stuart Russell

Shane Legg

Society is more likely to get "cat-level" or "dog-level" AI years before human-level AI.

"[W]e will eventually reach AGI... and quite possibly before the end of this century."

"Superhuman AIs" will be achieved "between a few years and a couple of decades."

"Digital intelligence" could overtake us within "5 to 20 years."

We may achieve "something like AGI or AGI-like in the next decade."

"[W]e could get to real AGI in the next decade."

"Human-level" AI could occur in "two or three years."

"I'd be surprised if we don't have AGI by [2029]."

Will AI Surpass Human Intelligence, and When?

Around 10,000 authors, including Kazuo Ishiguro, Philippa Gregory and Richard Osman, have published a book titled "Don't Steal This Book" that contains no narrative text except a list of the names of participating authors as a protest against AI firms.

Around 10,000 authors, including Kazuo Ishiguro, Philippa Gregory and Richard Osman, have published a book titled "Don't Steal This Book" that contains no narrative text except a list of the names of participating authors as a protest against AI firms.

The book is being distributed to attendees at the London Book Fair, which takes place from March 10 to 12, and its back cover states that the UK government must not legalize book theft to benefit AI companies.

The book is being distributed to attendees at the London Book Fair, which takes place from March 10 to 12, and its back cover states that the UK government must not legalize book theft to benefit AI companies.

The campaign targets a proposed UK government commercial research exception that would allow AI firms to train models on copyrighted books without author consent or payment, with ministers required to deliver an economic impact assessment by March 18.

The campaign targets a proposed UK government commercial research exception that would allow AI firms to train models on copyrighted books without author consent or payment, with ministers required to deliver an economic impact assessment by March 18.

Ed Newton-Rex, a composer who organized the campaign, stated that the AI industry is built on stolen work taken without permission or payment and that generative AI competes with the people whose work it is trained on, robbing them of their livelihoods.

Ed Newton-Rex, a composer who organized the campaign, stated that the AI industry is built on stolen work taken without permission or payment and that generative AI competes with the people whose work it is trained on, robbing them of their livelihoods.

AI systems require massive amounts of data to train tools such as chatbots and image generators, and much of this data is scraped from the open web and can include copyright-protected material, which has raised concerns among artists, writers and media companies worldwide.

AI systems require massive amounts of data to train tools such as chatbots and image generators, and much of this data is scraped from the open web and can include copyright-protected material, which has raised concerns among artists, writers and media companies worldwide.

Last year, AI company Anthropic, the developer of the Claude chatbot, agreed to pay $1.5 billion to settle a class-action lawsuit brought by authors who alleged that the startup used pirated versions of their books to train its flagship AI system.

Last year, AI company Anthropic, the developer of the Claude chatbot, agreed to pay $1.5 billion to settle a class-action lawsuit brought by authors who alleged that the startup used pirated versions of their books to train its flagship AI system.

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Artificial Intelligence

Thousands of authors publish ‘empty’ book in protest over AI using their work

Thousands of authors publish ‘empty’ book in protest over AI using their work

10,000 Authors Publish Protest Book Against AI Firms

Thousands10,000 ofAuthors authorsPublish publishProtest ‘empty’Book bookAgainst in protest over AI using their workFirms

The Controversies

Andreessen

Ng

LeCun

Mitchell

Li

Bengio

Musk

Altman

Hinton

Amodei

Yudkowsky

LeCun

Marcus

Bengio

Hinton

Hassabis

Altman

Amodei

Musk

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10,000 Authors Publish Protest Book Against AI Firms

Thousands10,000 ofAuthors authorsPublish publishProtest ‘empty’Book bookAgainst in protest over AI using their workFirms

The Controversies

Andreessen

Ng

LeCun

Mitchell

Li

Bengio

Musk

Altman

Hinton

Amodei

Yudkowsky

LeCun

Marcus

Bengio

Hinton

Hassabis

Altman

Amodei

Musk

Go Deeper

Articles on this story

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