Barry Diller, the prominent media mogul, has confirmed that he and a group of "leading publishers" are planning to take legal action concerning the utilization of published works in training artificial intelligence (AI) systems.
During an interview with CBS's Margaret Brennan on "Face the Nation," Diller, who serves as the chairman and senior executive of the internet and media conglomerate IAC, expressed his belief that generative AI is currently "overhyped, as all revolutions that are in the very beginning."
AI systems rely on vast language models that ingest various written materials such as books, news stories, and social media posts to enhance their performance. However, Diller and others in the publishing industry disagree with the way AI systems absorb publishers' content.
Diller pointed out that both Google and Microsoft, especially Google due to its advertising monopoly, aim to find a solution for publishers. However, their argument is based on the fair use doctrine of copyright law, which they claim permits them to use this content freely.
Diller emphasized the urgency of establishing a business model that allows professional content creation, as the lack of such a model could have severe long-term consequences. He advocated for legislation or litigation to safeguard publishers' copyrights.
Regarding potential litigation partners, Diller refrained from revealing their identities, referring to them simply as "leading publishers."
Diller downplayed immediate threats to Hollywood studio jobs from generative AI but acknowledged potential issues in the one-to-three-year timeframe.
This legal concern is not unique, as comedian Sarah Silverman and two other authors are currently suing Meta and OpenAI, alleging copyright infringement due to unauthorized use of their books to train the platforms' AI systems.
Recently, the Associated Press decided to license its news story archive to ChatGPT maker OpenAI to support the training of the AI company's system.
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