Use of Irish writers’ work for AI training has ‘profound implications’ – union

By Gráinne Ní Aodha, PA

A group of Irish writers has called on the Government to protect their work from AI technologies.

The group, led by the Irish Writers Union (IWU), submitted a petition with over 1,500 signatures to the Department of Enterprise in Dublin city on Thursday.

The demonstration was held in response to reports from The Atlantic, which claimed that Meta has used millions of books and research papers to train its AI generator Llama.

“The allegations have profound implications for Irish authors,” the IWU said.

The union has claimed that dozens of its members have had their work used for AI training without their permission.

It is encouraging writers to call for the cessation of use of their work for AI training, negotiate terms for continued use of their work, and request compensation for past unauthorised use of their work.

The union’s petition also called on the Government to “play its part” in protecting its citizens from copyright infringement.

“We call upon you to communicate with Meta and insist that the rights, interests and livelihoods of authors are adequately protected,” said the petition to junior minister Niamh Smyth, who has responsibility for AI and digital transformation.

“Specifically, we, the undersigned, call on you as Minister responsible for protecting EU copyright law from being violated in AI training to summon senior executives of Meta to provide a detailed response to the allegations that they have engaged in wholesale copyright infringement and to provide unequivocal assurances that they will respect the copyright of authors, not engage in unlawful conduct, and will pay authors for all historic infringements.”

A spokeswoman for Meta said: “We respect third-party intellectual property rights and believe our use of information to train AI models is consistent with existing law.”

Labour TD and media spokesman Rob O’Donoghue echoed the union’s calls for the Government to take “urgent action to defend Irish writers”.

“Irish writers are standing up to one of the world’s most powerful tech companies and they deserve the full backing of the Irish Government.

“This is a clear issue of copyright and compensation.

“Meta’s actions, if proven, are in breach of Irish and EU copyright law.

“Writers have a right to be paid for their work.

“The creative sector faces enough challenges without billion-dollar corporations helping themselves to books, stories and ideas.”

The Department of Enterprise has been contacted for comment.