Irish Writers ask Government to hold Meta accountable for alleged use of pirated books to train AI

The Irish Writers Union (IWU) have asked Government to hold Meta accountable for allegedly using pirated work to train AI without authors' permission.

The Union presented a petition to the Department of Enterprise and Trade at 11:00am today, denouncing Meta's alleged use of Library Genesis (LibGen), an online shadow library containing more than 7.5 million pirated books and research papers, to train their flagship AI system Llama 3.

The petition comes amid an ongoing court battle in the US over the matter. Last January, unredacted court documents alleged that Meta used LibGen.

 

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The IWU’s petition has collected over 1,500 signatures.

As reported by The Journal, the union said that "the Irish Writers Union condemns and will resist any piracy of its members' works by Meta or any tech company which tries to use material without permission or compensation."

"It is difficult enough to make a living as a writer without billionaires deciding it’s too inconvenient to pay for our work," said union chairperson Conor McAnally.

"Meta claims to respect copyright and the law but the revelations… tell a different story," he added.

“The Irish Writers Union will robustly defend our members and their right to fair compensation for any use of their work. We call on the Irish Government to support those writers whose work has been pirated and hold Meta to account.”

Earlier this month, former Sinn Féin president Gerry Adams revealed he is considering taking legal action against the US company for using his books.

"Meta has used many of my books without my permission," he said. "I have placed the issue in the hands of my solicitor."