As the AI arms race intensifies, tech giants are competing to find new sources of data to fuel their systems. In response, Meta executives have been meeting almost daily to develop strategies for gathering data. However, as AI systems become more powerful, companies are becoming increasingly aggressive in their pursuit of data, which could potentially lead to copyright violations.
One possible solution that was considered by Meta was to purchase the publishing house Simon & Schuster. However, this idea was met with resistance from some attendees who suggested paying $10 per book for licensing rights to new titles. By the time of the meetings, Meta had already summarized many books, essays, and other online works, some of which contained copyrighted information.
When the issue of ethical concerns was raised during the meetings, there was silence from attendees. Meta did not immediately respond to requests for comments from Business Insider. Ultimately, executives at Meta decided to rely on the precedent set by the Supreme Court case Authors Guild vs. Google in 2015. The court ruled in favor of Google, allowing them to digitize books for Google Books under fair use guidelines. Meta’s lawyers argued that the company could train its AI systems under the same guidelines.
