Pulitzer winner Chabon, different authors sue Meta over AI program


By Blake Brittain and Katie Paul

Sept 12 (Reuters) – A gaggle of writers together with Pulitzer Prize winner Michael Chabon sued Meta Platforms in San Francisco federal courtroom on Tuesday, accusing the tech big of misusing their works to coach its Llama artificial-intelligence software program.

Chabon, Tony-winning playwright David Henry Hwang and authors Matthew Klam, Rachel Louise Snyder and Ayelet Waldman in a lawsuit mentioned Meta taught the Llama large-language mannequin to reply to human textual content prompts with datasets that included pirated variations of their writings.

The identical writers filed an analogous proposed class-action lawsuit on Friday towards ChatGPT maker OpenAI. The authors mentioned within the OpenAI case that works like books and performs are significantly priceless for AI language coaching because the “greatest examples of high-quality, lengthy kind writing.”

A spokesperson for Meta declined to touch upon the brand new lawsuit. An legal professional for the writers didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark.

Meta and OpenAI had been additionally sued for copyright infringement in July by a separate group of authors that features comic Sarah Silverman, a part of a rising record of copyright instances towards AI corporations.

Meta printed a listing of datasets used to coach its first model of the Llama mannequin, which it launched in February. The corporate didn’t disclose coaching knowledge for its newest model, Llama 2.

Llama 2, the primary giant language mannequin that Meta has made publicly out there for industrial use, is free to make use of for corporations with fewer than 700 million month-to-month energetic customers.

The Llama 2 launch was seen as a possible game-changer within the rising marketplace for generative AI software program, threatening to upend the early dominance of gamers resembling OpenAI and Google that cost important quantities to make use of their fashions. (Reporting by Blake Brittain in Washington and Katie Paul in New York; Modifying by David Bario and Daniel Wallis)