Writers Guild demands studios start suing tech companies for AI plagiarism

The union is accusing tech companies of training AI on subtitle files pulled from thousands of TV shows and films.

By William Hughes  |  December 12, 2024 | 6:27pm
A still from Breaking Bad one of numerous shows and movies reports say were used to train AI (Screenshot: Netflix)
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Writers Guild demands studios start suing tech companies for AI plagiarism
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The Writers Guild is now demanding studios take legal action against tech companies found to have been training their artificial intelligences on copyrighted works—including on open-source subtitles for TV shows and films, which AI researchers have reportedly been using to import huge reams of Guild-written dialogue into their large language models without paying anybody a dime.

This is per THR, reporting on an open letter issued by the union today, calling on studios to bring the full might of their legal wrath down on tech companies accused of “wholesale theft,” “plunder,” and plagiarism. (Writers: They gots them the words what’s good.) Among other things, the letter reminds the studios that their bargaining agreement with the Guild requires them to legally defend the rights of written works they hold “in trust,” while also accusing the studios of having “allowed tech companies to plunder entire libraries without permission or compensation.”

The letter specifically cites a November 2024 article in The Atlantic, in which writer Alex Reisner reported that a huge data set pulled from the web site OpenSubtitles had been used by companies like Apple, Anthropic, Meta, Nvidia, Salesforce, Bloomberg, and more to train LLMs. The site contains huge amounts of transcribed dialogue from any number of TV shows and movies, and the set taken reportedly included “writing from every film nominated for Best Picture from 1950 to 2016, at least 616 episodes of The Simpsons, 170 episodes of Seinfeld, 45 episodes of Twin Peaks, and every episode of The Wire, The Sopranos, and Breaking Bad.” In other words: “Cha-ching!” for anybody looking to get a lot of Hollywood dialogue to feed into the woodchipper on the cheap. (Or free.)

Here’s the full text of the Guild’s letter:

The November 18 Atlantic article “There’s No Longer Any Doubt That Hollywood Writing is Powering AI” confirms what was already clear to so many: tech companies have looted the studios’ intellectual property—a vast reserve of works created by generations of union labor—to train their artificial intelligence systems. Having amassed billions in capital on this foundation of wholesale theft, these tech companies now seek to sell back to the studios highly-priced services that plagiarize stolen works created by WGA members and Hollywood labor.

The studios, as copyright holders of works written by WGA members, have done nothing to stop this theft. They have allowed tech companies to plunder entire libraries without permission or compensation. The studios’ inaction has harmed WGA members.

The Guild’s collective bargaining agreement—the MBA—expressly requires the studios to defend their copyrights on behalf of writers. MBA Article 50 provides that the studios hold “in trust” rights reserved to certain writers of original works. Writers who have separated rights in those works under Article 16.B retain all other rights in the material, including the right to use the works to train AI systems. As holders of those rights in trust, the studios have a fiduciary obligation to protect against the unauthorized use of the works for AI training purposes.

It’s time for the studios to come off the sidelines. After this industry has spent decades fighting piracy, it cannot stand idly by while tech companies steal full libraries of content for their own financial gain. The studios should take immediate legal action against any company that has used our members’ works to train AI systems.

 
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