Academic authors ‘shocked’ at Microsoft AI agreement

In the UK, the Bookseller reports that academic publisher Taylor & Francis has sold access to its authors’ research as part of an artificial intelligence (AI) partnership with Microsoft worth almost £8 million (A$15.6m) in its first year, with authors reporting they had not been informed of the deal.

According to the Bookseller, academics published by the group said they were not told about the AI deal, were not given the opportunity to opt out and are receiving no extra payment for the use of their research. The Society of Authors (SoA) said it was ‘concerned to see publishers signing deals with tech companies without consulting authors and creators first’.

Taylor & Francis group owner Informa reported the deal in its May trading update, with a spokesperson confirming to the Bookseller that the company ‘is providing Microsoft non-exclusive access to advanced learning content and data to help improve relevance and performance of AI systems’.

Taylor & Francis said it was ‘protecting the integrity of our authors’ work and limits on verbatim text reproduction, as well as authors’ rights to receive royalty payments in accordance with their author contracts’, but did not comment on the Bookseller’s request to clarify if it was possible for authors to opt out or if authors had been told about the AI deal.

SoA senior policy manager and contracts advisor Ambre Morvan said of the situation: ‘There are copyright, moral rights and data protection questions that need to be carefully considered, as well as questions about transparency and fairness of payment from (authorised) uses by tech companies. The impact of such uses on traditional sales of the author’s work and the author’s professional future more widely must also be considered. Creators are the backbone of our world-leading creative industries, and we cannot emphasise enough the vital need to protect them.’

Category: International news