Meta Platforms, formerly known as Facebook, is facing a lawsuit in San Francisco federal court filed by a group of writers, including Pulitzer Prize winner Michael Chabon. The authors accuse Meta of misusing their literary works to train its Llama artificial intelligence software, marking a significant development in the ongoing battle over copyright infringement in the AI industry.
The lawsuit includes notable authors such as Michael Chabon, Tony-winning playwright David Henry Hwang, and authors Matthew Klam, Rachel Louise Snyder, and Ayelet Waldman. They allege that Meta used pirated versions of their writings in datasets to train the Llama large-language model.
The authors argue that Meta's use of their works without permission amounts to copyright infringement. They claim that their literary works are particularly valuable for training AI language models, given their high-quality and long-form writing.
This lawsuit against Meta follows a similar proposed class-action lawsuit filed against OpenAI by the same group of authors. The increasing number of copyright cases against AI companies underscores the industry's challenges in sourcing legitimate training data.
Meta has not issued a public statement regarding the new lawsuit. The company has yet to respond to allegations of copyright infringement and misuse of literary works.
Meta's Llama AI model, particularly Llama 2, has the potential to disrupt the generative AI software market. Llama 2 is the first large language model made publicly available by Meta for commercial use.
The release of Llama 2 challenges the dominance of established players in the generative AI market, such as OpenAI and Google. The absence of disclosed training data for Llama 2 adds complexity to the ongoing legal disputes.
Meta's legal battle with writers over the alleged misuse of their literary works for training Llama AI reflects the broader challenges AI companies face in acquiring legitimate training data. The authors' argument that their high-quality writing is essential for AI language models highlights the value of quality content in AI development.
The outcome of this lawsuit, along with similar cases, will have implications for how AI companies handle copyright and intellectual property concerns in the future.
Read more about Meta:
Meta Develops Cutting-Edge AI System to Challenge OpenAI's Dominance
Meta Unveils AI Code Generation Tool: Introducing Code Llama
Meta Develops AI Model for Multilingual Translation and Transcription
