Tag: publishing

HarperCollins turns to machine translation tests for book series in France

French translators are in uproar over the move, fearing that work will stop. (Picture: Adobe)
Sales have been declining for the usually popular Harlequin romance books in France, and in order to keep the prices low, HarperCollins has turned to an AI translation outfit, reports Publisher’s Weekly.

Human translators and a French anti-AI collective are up in arms at the change, with romance author Caroline Lee telling 404 Media that they are «cutting back on human creativity and ingenuity in order to save money.»

The French Fluent Planet translation service offers access to translators from «the best universities,» with «decades of experience,» using AI software that can provide «2 to 3 times higher quality translations.»

HarperCollins on their end is trying to calm nerves by saying they are just testing with Fluent Planet, but some translators are not convinced.

Read more: Publisher’s Weekly, 404 Media, and a statement from the translators.

Amazon launches mini-chatbot to ask about the book you’re reading

"Ask this book" delivers spoiler-free plot details up to the point where you are reading.
It might be helpful to have a mini-AI for the book you are reading, but is it legal? (Picture: Amazon)
«Ask this book» is an always-on, non-opt-out feature for Kindle, made without asking a single author about how they feel about it.

It lets you «ask questions about the book you’re reading and receive spoiler-free answers» up to where you are in the book, Amazon says on its release page.

It is intended for those long reads or breaks between them, so you can ask for a refresher on «plot details, character relationships, and thematic elements» without leaving the page.

The chatbot is available for «thousands of best-selling Kindle books» in the Kindle iOS app in the USA, and is on it’s way to Android «next year.»

There is no option for authors to drop out, and the feature is always on, Amazon tells Publishers Lunch — and some are wondering if Amazon can be sued for creating derivative works.

Read more: Amazon’s release page, additional information on Publishers Lunch. Writeups on Gizmodo, Engadget.

OpenAI loses privacy fight for ChatGPT message logs in NYT lawsuit

OpenAI is on the verge of losing its fight to keep their users' chat logs private, instead of turning them over to the NYT.
Your logs belongs belong to us, the NYT lawyers say, and the court agrees. (Picture: Adobe)
OpenAI has been fighting tooth and nail to preserve the privacy of their users’ messages in the lawsuit brought by The New York Times in 2023.

A new judgement could now mean they have to turn over more than 20 million chat logs, and many more messages, from the chatbot, reports Reuters.

The logs themselves should be anonymized by OpenAI in a way that pleases the court, but their content could be easy to pin down, and OpenAI has promised to appeal to the presiding Judge.

This is merely the discovery phase of the ongoing trial, where lawyers for the NYT have said the messages are necessary to discover whether ChatGPT did indeed copy verbatim text from them.

OpenAI must now first anonymize the logs, and then submit them to the court, and NYT’s attorneys, seven days later.

Read more: Reuters has the scoop.

Owner of Billboard, Rolling Stone, sues Google over AI Overviews

To stop AI Overviews, you also need to stop appearing in Google's search results, and there is no way of opting out, Penske says.
Speaking for the entire media industry, Penske says AI Overviews are creating havoc on their business model. (Picture: screenshot)
Penske Media Corporation claims Google is siphoning off traffic to their websites and stealing their content with the overviews feature.

This is the first major publisher suing Google for the feature, as research from Pew shows that less than one percent of users click on from links that have an AI Overview on the results.

20% drop in traffic
PMC, which is also the parent company of Variety and The Hollywood Reporter, has seen traffic drop by some 20% and affiliate revenue decline 30% since Google’s overviews started on their stories.

Continue reading “Owner of Billboard, Rolling Stone, sues Google over AI Overviews”

Anthropic’s copyright settlement to cost $1.5 billion or more

Anthropic will pay $3,000 per book for an estimated 500,000 books, and more if further claims surface.
The Anthropic settlement is predicted to push other AI labs into negotiations over similar claims. (Picture: Adobe)
The landmark court settlement will be the largest copyright payout in history, but Anthropic avoids admitting guilt.

The epic class action lawsuit concerned a library of 7 million pirated books used in training, and had Anthropic looking at $150,000 in penalties per instance of copyright theft, but it was settled last week without disclosing terms.

Continue reading “Anthropic’s copyright settlement to cost $1.5 billion or more”

Anthropic settles «historic» class action copyright case brought by authors

A loss in the case would cause astronomical payouts in damages to millions of authors.
The settlement removes the threat of a debilitating loss in court, but the details have yet to be worked out. (Picture: Adobe)
UPDATE: The settlement details are in. The binding agreement was reached in principle on Tuesday, and the parties have asked the court to halt further proceedings.

The center of the suit was Anthropic’s library of 7 million pirated books in their training data, that could carry a penalty of $150,000 per infringement — and as a class action case, a loss would entail damages for every single author.

An unfavorable ruling would therefore be debilitating to Anthropic, and send dark clouds across the industry, likely forcing them toward a settlement.

Continue reading “Anthropic settles «historic» class action copyright case brought by authors”

Judge rules in favor of Meta’s AI books training, with a strong caveat

A federal judge beratedly rules that Meta's book copying is fair use, after plaintiffs fail to prove their case.
Fair use is a provision in copyright that makes it legal to copy for «transformative works.» (Picture: Alan Levine, CC BY 2.0)
After initially being sceptical of declaring the training on copyrighted books «fair use,» U.S. District Judge Vince Chhabria relented — but not the strength on Meta’s case.

Instead, he clearly says in his summary judgement that it «is generally illegal to copy protected works without permission,» (CNBC) but the plaintiffs «made the wrong arguments and failed to develop a record in support of the right one.» (The Verge.)

Continue reading “Judge rules in favor of Meta’s AI books training, with a strong caveat”

In a first, judge rules training AI on copyrighted works is fair use

Anthropic has 7 million pirated books to be handled at trial.
Anthropic keeps a library of pirated books, too, and that does infringe on copyrights. (Picture: >littleyiye<, CC BY 2.0)
Anthropic’s argument that the training was «transformative» and little different from training school kids in writing held up in court yesterday.

This is the same argument used by the AI labs in a flurry of lawsuits by authors, newspapers and stock photographers, and could have wide repercussions across both the publishing and AI industries.

Continue reading “In a first, judge rules training AI on copyrighted works is fair use”