Lauren Groff, Emily Henry, and Kennedy Ryan are among the dozens of authors to sign a petition asking American publishers to promise they will not release books written with generative artificial intelligence.
In an open letter addressed to the Big Five presses “and all other publishers of America,” published on the Literary Hub website, the authors write, “We want our publishers to stand with us. To make a pledge that they will never release books that were created by machines. To pledge that they will not replace their human staff with AI tools or degrade their positions into AI monitors.”
The rise of AI has alarmed many in the literary community who fear that publishers might use the technology to generate books, essentially cutting authors out of the equation.
The letter comes just days after a federal judge in San Francisco ruled that the AI company Anthropic did not violate copyright law by using millions of books to train a Chatbot. The judge also ruled that the company must stand trial for allegedly pirating the books, however.
The authors’ letter read in part, “We call on publishers to take a public stand for their authors against the theft of our art and the debased AI work that profits from that theft. This isn’t just about those of us who are publishing today. Regardless of whether we are able to keep publishing or not, we also believe it’s our duty to make more space for those new writers out there honing their craft, hoping to someday share their work—and be fairly compensated for it.”
Other signers include Leigh Bardugo, Lev Grossman, Jasmine Guillory, Abby Jimenez, R.F. Kuang, and Karen Russell.
Michael Schaub is a contributing writer.
