HarperCollins Strikes AI Training Deal: Authors Offered $2,500 Per Book
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HarperCollins strikes AI training deal with unnamed company amid rising copyright tensions between publishers and AI firms
Publishing giants and generative artificial intelligence companies are striking deals that aim to both protect copyright and provide for the rapidly increasing needs of the AI industry. US publishing giant HarperCollins has reached a contract with an unnamed tech company allowing it to use some of
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To maintain growth, AI firms seek accords with publishing giants
Publishing giants and generative artificial intelligence companies are striking deals that aim to both protect copyright and provide for the rapidly increasing needs of the AI industry. US publishing giant HarperCollins has reached a contract with an unnamed tech company allowing it to use some of
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HarperCollins Is Asking Its Authors to Sell Books for A.I. Training
A new deal between the publisher and Microsoft will use nonfiction books to improve A.I. models. Earlier this month, Daniel Kibblesmith received an emailed memo from HarperCollins, one of the world's largest publishing companies, offering $2,500 to license his 2017 children's book Santa's Husband
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HarperCollins Inks AI Training Deal, But It Needs Authors to Opt-In
HarperCollins Publishers has struck a licensing deal with an AI tech company and is now asking its authors to opt in. As 404 Media reports, the AI company will pay HarperCollins for access to select "backlist titles," or books that have been out for at least a year. The content will be used to
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HarperCollins is asking authors to license their books for AI training
HarperCollins has agreed with an unnamed AI tech company to let the company use some nonfiction titles to train its models, 404 Media reports, but only if authors opt-in to having their books be used for training. Some authors are currently suing companies like OpenAI, accusing them of copyright
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HarperCollins to allow tech firms to use its books to train AI models
Some nonfiction backlist titles will be used to train artificial intelligence with authors' permission Publisher HarperCollins will allow some of its titles to be used to train AI models, with the permission of authors. The company "has reached an agreement with an artificial intelligence
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HarperCollins Confirms It Has a Deal to Sell Authors' Work to AI Company
The Big Five publisher made a deal with an unnamed "artificial intelligence technology company" and is allowing authors to opt-in if they want to join the agreement. HarperCollins, one of the biggest publishers in the world, made a deal with an "artificial intelligence technology company" and is
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HarperCollins has reached an agreement with an unnamed AI company to use select nonfiction books for AI model training, offering authors $2,500 per book. The deal highlights growing tensions between publishers, authors, and AI firms over copyright and compensation.
HarperCollins Strikes Deal with AI Company for Book Training
HarperCollins, one of the world's largest publishing companies, has entered into an agreement with an unnamed artificial intelligence technology company to allow the use of select nonfiction backlist titles for training AI models
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. This move comes amid rising tensions between publishers, authors, and AI firms over copyright issues and the use of written content for AI training.Deal Terms and Author Compensation
Under the terms of the agreement, the AI company is proposing a payment of $2,500 per selected book to train its large language model (LLM) for up to three years
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. HarperCollins has emphasized that authors have the choice to opt in or pass on this opportunity, respecting the various views of its authors1
.Scope and Limitations
The publisher stated that the agreement has a "limited scope and clear guardrails around model output that respects author's rights"
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. These guardrails include limiting the output of AI models to no more than 5% of a book's text, according to the Authors Guild5
.Mixed Reception from Authors
The offer has received a mixed reception in the publishing world. Some authors, like Daniel Kibblesmith, have publicly declined the offer, describing it as "abominable"
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. Kibblesmith jokingly stated he would only consider such a deal for a sum that would eliminate his need to work, highlighting the concerns many authors have about AI potentially replacing human writers5
.Broader Industry Trends
HarperCollins is not the first publisher to reach such an accord. US scientific publisher Wiley has also allowed access to its academic and professional book content for AI training in a $23 million contract with an unidentified "large tech company"
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. Other publishers like Taylor & Francis and Oxford University Press have also been approached with or are working on similar deals5
.Related Stories
Copyright Concerns and Legal Actions
The agreements underscore the ongoing tension surrounding AI models, which collect vast amounts of content from the web, raising concerns about potential copyright violations
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. In response to these concerns, some authors and publishers have taken legal action. The New York Times, for instance, sued OpenAI and Microsoft in late 2023 for alleged copyright infringement2
.Industry Perspectives
Giada Pistilli, head of ethics at Hugging Face, views these agreements as a step forward since they involve payments to publishers. However, she expresses concern that they leave little room for authors to negotiate
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. Julien Chouraqui, legal director at the French publishing union (SNE), sees the accords as progress, indicating a dialogue and desire to balance the use of copyrighted source data2
.Future Implications
As AI companies face challenges in finding new, high-quality data to power their models, these deals may become increasingly common. The publishing industry is grappling with how to protect copyright while also potentially benefiting from the growing AI sector. The outcome of these early agreements and ongoing legal battles will likely shape the future relationship between the publishing world and AI technology
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