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Mint
a day ago
- Business
- Mint
Generative vs. Creative: A court verdict on AI training has exposed an Anthropic-shaped chink in US copyright law
Dave Lee The recent ruling that okayed Anthropic's use of 'stolen books' to train its AI model shows how copyright law loopholes can be exploited. If laws aren't modified, the creative industry could face extinction. Anthropic was sued by a group of three authors whose books were in the training data. Gift this article In what is shaping up to be a long, hard fight over the use of creative works, round one has gone to the AI makers. In the first such US decision of its kind, District Judge William Alsup said Anthropic's use of millions of books to train its artificial-intelligence model, without payment to the sources, was legal under copyright law because it was 'transformative—spectacularly so." In what is shaping up to be a long, hard fight over the use of creative works, round one has gone to the AI makers. In the first such US decision of its kind, District Judge William Alsup said Anthropic's use of millions of books to train its artificial-intelligence model, without payment to the sources, was legal under copyright law because it was 'transformative—spectacularly so." The closely watched ruling is a warning of what lies ahead under existing copyright laws. Designed to protect creative freedom, the 'fair use' doctrine that Anthropic used to successfully defend its actions is now the most potent tool for undermining the creative industry's ability to support itself in the coming age of AI. If a precedent has been set, as several observers believe, it stands to cripple one of the few possible AI monetization strategies for rights holders, which is to sell licenses to firms for access to their work. Some of these deals have already been made while the 'fair use' question has been in limbo, deals that emerged only after the threat of legal action. This ruling may have just taken future deals off the table. Also Read: Pay thy muse: Yes, AI does owe royalties for stolen inspiration For context, it's useful to understand how Anthropic built the large language model that underpins its popular AI chat bot, Claude. First, according to court filings, it downloaded pirated copies of at least 7 million books to avoid the 'slog" (its chief executive officer wrote) of acquiring them through more legitimate means. Later, thinking better of the outright theft, the company decided to buy millions of used physical books (usually one copy per title), telling distributors it wanted to create a 'research library." Anthropic staff then removed the spines, scanned the pages into a digital format and destroyed the originals. This library was used to train Anthropic's LLM, giving Claude the kind of smarts it can charge money for. The chatbot offers limited use for free but a fuller experience for $20 a month, and more for businesses. As of its last funding round, Anthropic was valued at $61.5 billion. (As a guide, publisher Simon and Schuster was sold in 2023 for $1.62 billion.) Anthropic was sued by a group of three authors whose books were in the training data. In the judge's ruling, he said that Anthropic's acquisition of pirated material was unlawful, damages for which will be assessed at a trial. That was the one piece of bad news for the company. The far bigger news was how the ruling gives the green light to Anthropic—and every other AI firm building LLMs in this way—by declaring everything else it did aboveboard. Millions of books were ingested and repurposed, their knowledge sold on without a penny ever going to the originators. Judge Alsup's ruling, which follows the law tightly, serves as an important example of its now critical blind spots. Also Read: ChatGPT plays Ghibli well: Will genuine originality suffer? The first part of the 'fair use' test was pretty easy to pass: The material that comes out of Claude is significantly different from what goes in. 'Sensationally," different, Judge Alsup wrote, deeming it to clear the test's bar. That is undoubtedly true because the law (quite reasonably) deals only with the precise output while ignoring the fundamental knowledge or idea that underpins it. A trickier test is whether the existence of Claude diminishes the authors' ability to sell their books. In this, Alsup again stressed that because what comes out of Claude isn't an exact replica, or a substantial knock-off, then the market for buying the books is left fully intact. This misses the point of an AI bot. Turning to one—rather than, say, a library (which pays for its books), or a newspaper (which pays its contributors)—is a shortcut that reduces the need to interact with the source material at all. Consider Google's AI Overviews feature, which synthesizes content from news and other sources into easily digestible answers, saving the need to visit websites directly. It works great: Traffic to websites has plummeted, taking with it the business model that supports their existence. Matthew Prince, CEO of online security group Cloudflare, put it in starker terms. Speaking at an event in Cannes, Prince said that for every web visit Anthropic sends a publisher's way, it crawls that site for information 60,000 times. 'People aren't following the footnotes," he warned. Given the nature of how a book is acquired, it's impossible to have an equivalent stat, but the logic clearly extends: AI reduces the need to go to the source and, therefore, the opportunity for publishers to sell it to people and generate income to support the creation of more of it. Another argument thrown out by the court was concern that Claude could be used to create competing works—that the AI will be used to generate an alternative to the book because it knows everything in it. On this, Alsup agrees that's likely, but adds: Authors' complaint is no different than it would be if they complained that training schoolchildren to write well would result in an explosion of competing works. This is not the kind of competitive or creative displacement that concerns the Copyright Act. The Act seeks to advance original works of authorship, not to protect authors against competition. This most clearly exposes the severe limitations of copyright law, where no framework is provided to account for the existence and application of an incredible writing machine that has swallowed up 7 million stolen books. If it does account for it, it does so shortsightedly, considering it—as Alsup writes—to be 'no different" from a child because both are being given things to read and taught how to write. An absurdity: One is a human schoolchild, the other is a machine. This changes the conversation immensely. A child might read 10 books a year if we're lucky. The creation of the books she reads is supported by a parent or school buying them for her. If she decides to write, it's one of life's miracles—a chance for her imagination to flow onto the page. Despite being just a child, or perhaps because of it, her writing will be fresh and unique, laden, between the lines or otherwise, with lived experience. The home she grew up in, the friends she's met, the dreams she has—all will influence how she interprets the contents of the books she has read, determining how she chooses to pass on that knowledge. Her writing will contain contradictions, flaws and humanity. Most important for this debate, her 'competing work" is additive. She will contribute. Also Read: Rahul Matthan: AI models aren't copycats but learners just like us The machine downloads 7 million books and learns nothing—for it cannot learn, at least not in any true sense of the word. It does not contribute; it copies. Sure, it may synthesize information in ways that may surprise us, but it does so only thanks to the hard and uncompensated work of others. It can have no lived, or new, experiences. For sure, a competent new knowledge tool may have been created, but AI doesn't so much generate new value as it does transfer it—from one place, the original source, to another: itself. That's not in and of itself a problem; many technologies do this. But this value transfer should command a fee to the originator if the copyright law's stated goal of advancing original works of authorship is to be met for generations to come. AI is already a phenomenal technology that I use daily. My monthly AI bill across multiple services now exceeds what I pay for any other types of subscriptions. I pay those costs because I understand running an AI platform is expensive, what with all those data centers, power plants, Nvidia chips and engineering talent that must be amassed. Alsup was right when he wrote that 'the technology at issue was among the most transformative many of us will see in our lifetimes." But that doesn't mean it shouldn't pay its way. Nobody would dare suggest Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang hand out his chips for free. No construction worker is asked to keep costs down by building data center walls for nothing. Software engineers aren't volunteering their time to Meta in awe of Mark Zuckerberg's business plan—they instead command salaries of $100 million and beyond. Yet, as ever, those in the tech industry have decided that creative works, and those who create them, should be considered of little or no value and must step aside in service of the great calling of AI—despite being every bit as vital to the product as any other factor mentioned above. As science-fiction author Harlan Ellison said in his famous sweary rant, nobody ever wants to pay the writer if they can get away with it. When it comes to AI, paying creators of original work isn't impossible, it's just inconvenient. Legislators should leave companies no choice. ©Bloomberg The author is Bloomberg Opinion's US technology columnist. Topics You May Be Interested In
New York Post
4 days ago
- Entertainment
- New York Post
Danny DeVito nearly died on 'It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia' set: book
The gang turns twenty. TV's most outrageous sitcom 'It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia' is celebrating its 20th anniversary this summer – as the show first premiered on FX in the summer of 2005. Author Kimberly Potts' new book out July 1, 'It's (Almost) Always Sunny in Philadelphia: How Three Friends Spent $200 to Create the Longest-Running Live-Action Sitcom in History and Help Build a Network,' details the show's unlikely rise to prominence and behind the scenes stories. Advertisement Potts, who has also written a book about 'The Brady Bunch,' told The Post that during her research she learned how Danny DeVito nearly died while filming the series. 10 Kimberly Potts' new book about 'It's Always Sunny.' Simon and Schuster 10 Kaitlin Olson as Dee, Rob McElhenney as Mac, Glenn Howerton as Dennis, Danny DeVito as Frank in 'The Gang Goes to Hell: Part 2.' Advertisement During the Season 11 episode 'The Gang Goes to Hell: Part Two,' the group is on a cruise, and are trapped in a room that has a leak. The episode aired on March 9, 2016. 'They're swimming, they keep rising to the top. And to shoot that scene, they were underwater,' Potts explained, noting that the water level is rising. 'At one point, Danny got accidentally kicked, I think, in the shoulder –- close to his head. As I've been told, he nearly drowned,' she added. 'It certainly had everyone afraid he was in trouble.' 10 Danny DeVito as Frank underwater in 'The Gang Goes to Hell: Part 2.' Advertisement 10 Charlie Day as Charlie, Rob McElhenney as Mac, Glenn Howerton as Dennis, Kaitlin Olson as Dee, Danny DeVito as Frank in the episode where DeVito nearly drowned. Created by Rob McElhenney and co-developed by Glenn Howerton, the show follows a group of narcissist and sociopathic friends who own a pub in the titular city: Dennis (Howerton), Charlie (Charlie Day), Mac (McElhenney), Dee (Kaitlin Olson), and Dennis and Dee's father, Frank (Danny DeVito). After they rescued DeVito, 'he was very frustrated by that situation,' Potts recalled to The Post. 'He just quietly left, and the day was over for him. So even he has a threshold for how far he's willing to go. But for the overwhelming majority, their experience with him is great,' she acknowledged. 'Kaitlin Olson has called him the happiest person she's ever known.' Advertisement Potts' book details the show's unlikely success story, as the comedy's original pilot cost Day, Howerton, and McElhenney a measly $200 to make. 10 Charlie Day as Charlie, Rob McElhenney as Mac in 'It's Always Sunny.' A few years later by 2009, Comedy Central would pay over $30 million to acquire syndication rights. Potts attributed their success to 'building slowly.' 'In the beginning, FX didn't have a lot of money for marketing, so they'd do those wild creative marketing campaigns with graphics and go to college campuses. They had a huge college and high school fan base. Those people graduated, and now they have [teenage kids] they watch it with.' She also cited how YouTube launched the same year the show did, which helped certain scenes go viral. 10 Author Kimberly Potts. Rashidah DeVore Photography 'With any story like this, certainly there is some luck involved,' she said. 'To do something like this now — in the current climate of TV — I think it would be almost impossible. People don't get the chance to have that time and grow an audience. And gel as a cast and gel with writing staff and show people across several seasons what they can do.' Advertisement So, she said, many factors went into the mix of their unlikely success, including the fact that 'they are legitimately friends in real life.' (McElhenney and Olson also met on the show and have been married since 2008.) 10 Danny DeVito as Frank, Charlie Day as Charlie, Rob McElhenney as Mac, Glenn Howerton as Dennis, Kaitlin Olson as Dee in 'It's Always Sunny.' In 2009, 'It's Always Sunny' even brought a play on tour: 'The Nightman Cometh,' which originated as a play within the show. The cast went to cities such as New York, Los Angeles, Philadelphia, and Seattle. 'Danny DeVito rented a bus for them, because he thought they should feel like rock stars while doing a tour. He paid out of his own pocket for the tour bus,' Potts explained. Advertisement She explained that this was before 'intense social media.' 10 Glenn Howerton as Dennis, Rob McElhenney as Mac, Kaitlin Olson as Dee. 'He had a bar installed, so they had a great time. They were all surprised when they would [visit these venues] and start to find out how much the show had grown.' That 2009 tour was a game changer for the show's success, since they realized how many fans they had. Advertisement As for when it could end? Howerton recently told The Post that they've discussed a conclusion — but revisit if they should continue 'year by year.' 10 Rob McElhenney, Glenn Howerton, Kaitlin Olson, Danny DeVito and Charlie Day act during a dance scene on the set of 'It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia' on May 23, 2007. Getty Images 10 Kaitlin Olson as Dee, Glenn Howerton as Dennis, Charlie Day as Charlie, Danny DeVito as Frank, Rob McElhenney as Mac. 'We're still having such a blast working with each other. And, there seems to be endless ways to explore the world through these characters. We have no intention of stopping anytime soon,' he revealed. Advertisement Potts cited cartoons that viewers have jokingly made of the cast doing the show into their old age, with canes and walkers. 'I don't think we're gonna see 'Sunny' Season 50, probably not, anyway,' she reasoned. 'But, can I see there being a Season 25? Maybe. I don't think that's out of the realm of possibility.' Season 17 premieres on Wednesday, July 9 on FXX and Hulu.
Sydney Morning Herald
18-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Sydney Morning Herald
Billionaire Barry Diller - married to Diane von Fürstenberg - comes out in new memoir
MEMOIR Who Knew Barry Diller Simon and Schuster, $59.99 Public figures still sometimes save weighty admissions about their lives for their autobiographies. Barry Diller, the billionaire media mogul and chairman of Expedia, has used his to do just that: come out of the closet. A former CEO of Paramount Pictures, Diller hid his sexual orientation for decades, despite persistent rumours to the contrary. A high-profile marriage to fashion designer Diane von Fürstenberg helped quell some speculation but the threat of being outed was still like an 'anvil hanging … over my head'. In Who Knew, the 83-year-old publicly acknowledges his sexuality for the first time. Diller admits that he has long known that he is gay but hid the truth to preserve his career ambitions and avoid public shaming. As for wife von Fürstenberg, she remains a rare romantic outlier and the lasting 'bedrock of my life'. The memoir now reveals this hidden personal history and also shares his business acumen with other aspiring entrepreneurs. Diller was born of privilege but suffered a dysfunctional family life, one where his mother would dispense sleeping tablets and a heroin-addicted brother beat him. The basement of talent agency William Morris was a sanctuary where its cabinets of archived correspondence were a way to 'read … through the history of show business'. Good fortune, as it happens, was often looking out for the eager student of Hollywood's history. First, a lucrative posting at the television network ABC to help program films for the small screen. An enterprising thinker, Diller believed networks should make films for the tube too, soon transforming the station's profile thanks to his successful made-for-TV movies.
The Age
18-06-2025
- Entertainment
- The Age
Billionaire Barry Diller - married to Diane von Fürstenberg - comes out in new memoir
MEMOIR Who Knew Barry Diller Simon and Schuster, $59.99 Public figures still sometimes save weighty admissions about their lives for their autobiographies. Barry Diller, the billionaire media mogul and chairman of Expedia, has used his to do just that: come out of the closet. A former CEO of Paramount Pictures, Diller hid his sexual orientation for decades, despite persistent rumours to the contrary. A high-profile marriage to fashion designer Diane von Fürstenberg helped quell some speculation but the threat of being outed was still like an 'anvil hanging … over my head'. In Who Knew, the 83-year-old publicly acknowledges his sexuality for the first time. Diller admits that he has long known that he is gay but hid the truth to preserve his career ambitions and avoid public shaming. As for wife von Fürstenberg, she remains a rare romantic outlier and the lasting 'bedrock of my life'. The memoir now reveals this hidden personal history and also shares his business acumen with other aspiring entrepreneurs. Diller was born of privilege but suffered a dysfunctional family life, one where his mother would dispense sleeping tablets and a heroin-addicted brother beat him. The basement of talent agency William Morris was a sanctuary where its cabinets of archived correspondence were a way to 'read … through the history of show business'. Good fortune, as it happens, was often looking out for the eager student of Hollywood's history. First, a lucrative posting at the television network ABC to help program films for the small screen. An enterprising thinker, Diller believed networks should make films for the tube too, soon transforming the station's profile thanks to his successful made-for-TV movies.
The Hindu
06-06-2025
- General
- The Hindu
Malayalam writer Benyamin: Our scriptures have a lot to tell us
'All religious scriptures have something to say.' Author Benyamin, who won the JCB Prize for Literature in 2018 for his book, Jasmine Days, adds that this is what inspired him to write the The Second Book of Prophets, translated by Ministhy S and published by Simon and Schuster. The original, Pravachakanmarude Randaam Pusthakam (Malayalam) was published in 2007. The book delves into the 1940s-50s discoveries of the Dead Sea Scrolls (a collection of ancient Jewish manuscripts discovered in 11 caves near the ruins of Qumran, on the northern shore of the Dead Sea) and the Nag Hammadi Library (a collection of over 50 early Christian and Gnostic texts discovered in Upper Egypt near the town of Nag Hammadi in 1945). Born into Christianity, Benny Daniel from Pathanamthitta, Kerala, grew up reading the Bible. 'When you read it as a religious text, you don't notice the characters or attempt to understand them. But, when one reads it as an academic text, you notice them, maybe think of their back stories,' he says. 'Bearing in mind that the Bible has been interpreted in several ways, with this reinterpretation, I hope, the reader is able to find new meaning and understanding of the scripture,' says Benyamin, a former NRI (non-residential Indian) or a pravasi as he likes to call himself. Growing up in a fairly conservative Christian household, he was expected to go to church every Sunday and pray every day. Nonetheless, Benyamin always viewed the religious text with an objective eye. 'The more you read, the stronger your base; the different themes and layers within the scriptures have a lot to tell,' he says. His 2008 Malayalam-language novel Aadujeevitham, was published by Green Books Private Limited, Thrissur. The book won him recognition in the form of bagging the Kerala Sahitya Akademi Award for novel in 2009. It was translated into English and German in 2012, and later to Arabic in 2014. In 2024, it was adapted into a Malayalam-language biographical survival drama film, titled The Goat Life, directed, and co-produced by Blessy. Still basking in the success the film, Benyamin says it is simply awe-inspiring to be recognised by readers across regions. If, in the Last Temptation of Christ, Nikos Kazantzakis humanises Christ by showcasing his tryst with various temptations. Benyamin, goes a step further and paints Christ as a revolutionary in The Second Book of Prophets, as someone who stands up to autocracy and class divide. 'Bearing in mind that the Bible has been interpreted in several ways, with this reinterpretation, I hope, the reader is able to find new meaning and understanding of the scripture,' says Benyamin. The incidental writer A mechanical engineer Benyamin Daniel, began his writing journey in 2000, with the publication of a collection of short stories. Benyamin is an incidental writer. His words — whether in Nishabda Sancharangal (Silent Journeys) or Jasmine Days — dig deep into the psyche of a reader. And this is what he hopes his latest work can do too. 'Readers reflect on the struggles that often form within a rebellion — the difference in opinion among the rebels — in this case, among Christ and his disciples, like Lazarus being ratted out, Judas' betrayal of Christ, and the conflict the leader himself faces from within when faced with temptations.' Talking about his style of writing, Benyamin says displacement and migration, whether literal or spiritual, are the themes of his books, because he feels that migration and embarking on a journey, is what life is all about — be it moving for for a job, trade, family. Constant movement has always been a part of man's evolution. 'Displacement is not a new phenomenon. It has been happening since the beginning of human history: war, slavery, natural disasters, and riots have all caused it. One of the main prayers of the Jews in the Old Testament was that they be delivered from exile. Even after reaching their dreamland, they could not experience freedom. The Romans conquered them. When telling the story of the struggle against them, it is natural that the sorrows of displacement will be embedded in it.' Discussing the years he spent in Bahrain as a mechanical engineer Benyamin says. 'I left my home and country and lived in a foreign land for two decades. I have experienced its loneliness, isolation, numbness, and existential problems very well. So, I can go ahead and write about that topic in depth.' 'Understanding the lives and struggles of migrant communities, their politics, circumstance and so on, is a part of studying humans, making us better humans,' Benyamin says. 'Also when we as readers traverse with them (the characters) through the story to his or her destination, whether physical or spiritual, it gives a reader satisfaction, the sated feeling one gets from reading a piece of good literature,' he adds. Each book by the author has been distinct from one another. 'Non-linear writing; that is how I approach putting a book together,' Benyamin says. He says he does not believe in sticking to formulaic writing. 'I don't create a mould and fit my story around it. I have a story in my head — I start by writing what I know about — be it a character or a scene and take it from there,' he says. He compares it to construction of a highway, say from Ernakulam to Thiruvananthapuram. 'The work for the highway can begin from anywhere, maybe Alappuzha, maybe somewhere near Thiruvananthapuram, but as long as there is a plan in place, the project will be done.' The author says that he looks up to Malayalam writers like OV Vijayan, Mohammed Bashir and M Mukundan, and enjoys reading classic and contemporary writers like Orhan Pamuk, Georgi Gospodinov, Nikos Kazantzakis, and Kafka. Speaking of future projects he says, 'I have just completed a novel, which will be published in July. Shelvy (Raj) was an editor and poet who played an important role in the history of Malayalam publishing. The novel is based on his life.' The Second Book of Prophets priced ₹599 is available on Amazon and all major bookstores
