[ALGORITHMIC JUSTICE LEAGUE] - Fight for The Right to Write
The Synopsis:
The Algorithmic Justice League [AJL], an organization that promotes awareness of AI harms, has taken a stance to protect the rights of writers, editors, and journalists from unregulated AI systems. These systems can train on multiple works of art without the consent, compensation, credit, and control of writers. Moreover, The AJL has created a form for anyone to express his or her experience with AI in order to hold companies accountable. Additionally, The Author’s Guild has made an Open Letter to Generative AI Leaders that anyone can sign to petition for writers’ rights.1
The Analysis:
I support the Algorithmic Justice League’s stance in protecting the rights of writers. As a writer myself, I expend much time and energy to create blogs; the sentiments, opinions, and verbiage are uniquely mine. If an AI system can replicate the ‘soul’ of my writing, then blogging would be useless, since it can be replaced. For example, Harry Potter, a famous book series about wizardry and magic, was written thoughtfully by J.K. Rowling. If an AI system could train on all of Rowling’s books and replicate them without consent, credit, or control, her success and longevity as an author would be greatly challenged. Additionally, the collective consciousness of creativity would diminish because of the ease of use of the foundation model to replicate anyone’s writing voice. We must ask ourselves, “Where do we draw the line?” because we cannot allow companies to train on artists’ works without their consent, control, and credit. I am well aware of the Copyright & Fair Use laws, which outline that copyrighted material can be used without permission if it is to comment, criticize, or parody the content.2 However, companies are training on the data to replicate writers’ styles, stories, and ideas, which are not protected in the copyright & fair use laws.
Writers are essential to our society, and the written word has profoundly shaped our society, like the Bible, the Bill of Rights, the Emancipation Proclamation, and other written works. Let’s protect our valuable works and writers that have figuratively and literally set people free.
The Bonus:
If your livelihood has been impacted, please share your story and sign the Authors Guild Open Letter:
Share Your Story: https://report.ajl.org/writers
The Authors Guild Open Letter: https://actionnetwork.org/petitions/authors-guild-open-letter-to-generative-ai-leaders
The Endnotes:
1 “AI Threatens The Livelihood of Writers. It’s Time to Make Your Voices Heard”, AJL, accessed Apr 18, 2024,
2 Rich Stim, “What is Fair Use”, Brookings, accessed Apr 18, 2024,
https://fairuse.stanford.edu/overview/fair-use/what-is-fair-use.