Séamas O'Reilly: I discovered my own memoir had been used to train Meta AI

I hate that writers and artists must suffer the indignity of being pickpocketed by the richest men who’ve ever lived.

Séamas O'Reilly: It won’t be news to anyone who knows me, or who reads this column with any regularity, that I hate AI Hype. Picture: Orfhlaith Whelan

This week, the Society of Authors called on the British government to hold Meta accountable for its use of copyrighted works from its members. This followed the news that the tech giant had allegedly downloaded over 7.5m titles from a book piracy website. The protesting authors are accusing Meta of breaching copyright laws to train its language models without compensating the authors responsible.

“I’m a crime writer — I understand theft when I see it” said Val McDermid of the case, joining the ranks of authors like Kazuo Ishiguro, Joanne Harris, Richard Osman, and Tom Stoppard in objecting to Meta’s actions. The Atlantic published a searchable database of the millions of books stolen, which I promptly used to discover that my own memoir had been included in the heist. I can only presume the Society of Authors did not have my email to hand when they were drafting the letter, and will forgive them for failing to contact me for my thoughts.