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HarperCollins Confirms It Has a Deal to Sell Authors' Work to AI Company

(Monday November 18, 2024 @05:40PM (BeauHD) from the AI-woodchipper dept.)


HarperCollins has partnered with an AI technology company to [1]allow limited use of select nonfiction backlist titles for training AI models , offering authors the choice to opt in for a $2,500 non-negotiable fee. 404 Media reports:

> On Friday, author Daniel Kibblesmith, who wrote the children's book Santa's Husband and published it with HarperCollins, posted screenshots on Bluesky of an email he received, seemingly from his agent, informing him that the agency was approached by the publisher about the AI deal. "Let me know what you think, positive or negative, and we can handle the rest of this for you," the screenshotted text in an email to Kibblesmith says. The screenshots show the agent telling Kibblesmith that HarperCollins was offering $2,500 (non-negotiable).

>

> "You are receiving this memo because we have been informed by HarperCollins that they would like permission to include your book in an overall deal that they are making with a large tech company to use a broad swath of nonfiction books for the purpose of providing content for the training of an Al language learning model," the screenshots say. "You are likely aware, as we all are, that there are controversies surrounding the use of copyrighted material in the training of Al models. Much of the controversy comes from the fact that many companies seem to be doing so without acknowledging or compensating the original creators. And of course there is concern that these Al models may one day make us all obsolete."

Kibblesmith called the deal "abominable."

"It seems like they think they're cooked, and they're chasing short money while they can. I disagree," Kibblesmith [2]told the AV Club . "The fear of robots replacing authors is a false binary. I see it as the beginning of two diverging markets, readers who want to connect with other humans across time and space, or readers who are satisfied with a customized on-demand content pellet fed to them by the big computer so they never have to be challenged again."



[1] https://www.404media.co/harpercollins-ai-deal/

[2] https://www.avclub.com/harpercollins-selling-books-to-ai-language-training



Terms (Score:2)

by abulafia ( 7826 )

I wonder how much the "large tech company" is offering per-book, and whether they're demanding exclusivity.

Unpopular opinion, once more (Score:2)

by war4peace ( 1628283 )

I have (been trying to) read quite a few "modern audiences" books lately, out of curiosity.

The one from TFS is not dissimilar:

> Everyone knows that Santa Claus is jolly, but in Santa’s Husband, this cherished symbol of the holiday season is also black and gay, and married to an equally cheery man.

Note, that's a children's book .

I agree, it shouldn't be fed to a LLM, but for different reasons than "it negatively affects the author".

Cut it out (Score:2)

by ihavesaxwithcollies ( 10441708 )

Maybe someone can explain it to me, but...I don't understand why you need a middle man corporation to sell your work to a seedy tech bro company.

snafu = Situation Normal All F%$*ed up