Future Retirement Success
  • Politics
  • Business
  • Investing
  • Stocks
  • Politics
  • Business
  • Investing
  • Stocks

Future Retirement Success

Business

Meta employees discussed buying Simon & Schuster to train AI models, report reveals

by April 10, 2024
April 10, 2024
Meta employees discussed buying Simon & Schuster to train AI models, report reveals

Recent revelations from internal meetings at Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, have shed light on discussions among managers, lawyers, and engineers regarding the potential acquisition of Simon & Schuster to procure books for training the company’s artificial intelligence (AI) tools.

The recordings, shared with the New York Times by an employee of Meta, offer insights into deliberations on leveraging the renowned publishing house’s extensive catalog to enhance AI training, prompting ethical and legal considerations.

According to the recordings spanning March to April 2023, Meta personnel convened on a near-daily basis to explore avenues for acquiring additional data to train AI models. Discussions included the possibility of purchasing Simon & Schuster, with some participants contemplating paying $10 per book for licensing rights to new titles.

Simon & Schuster, a prominent player in the English-speaking publishing landscape and part of the esteemed “Big Five” alongside Penguin Random House, HarperCollins, Hachette, and Macmillan, boasts a roster of distinguished authors such as Stephen King, Colleen Hoover, and Bob Woodward.

The prospect of Meta acquiring Simon & Schuster arose following Paramount Global’s announcement in March 2020 of its intent to divest the publishing house. Despite an aborted merger attempt with Penguin Random House, Simon & Schuster was ultimately sold to private equity firm KKR in August 2023.

Ahmad Al-Dahle, Meta’s vice president of generative AI, reportedly informed executives that the company had exhausted nearly all available English-language literary content on the internet for AI training purposes, prompting the search for new data sources.

Employees acknowledged using text sources without permission and contemplated expanding these practices despite potential legal ramifications. Concerns raised by a lawyer regarding the ethical implications of using copyrighted intellectual property were met with silence.

Additionally, discussions revealed Meta’s employment of contractors in Africa to aggregate summaries of copyrighted fiction and non-fiction texts, raising further ethical and legal questions regarding data collection practices.

Maria A Pallante, president of the Association of American Publishers, expressed skepticism about Simon & Schuster’s willingness to entertain such a sale, questioning Meta’s intentions and its potential impact on authors and contractual agreements.

In a related development, California federal judge Vince Chhabria dismissed a portion of a copyright lawsuit filed by comedian Sarah Silverman and other authors against Meta over the use of copyrighted books in training its AI system LLaMA. Chhabria cast doubt on claims that the AI models’ outputs significantly resembled the authors’ works, underscoring ongoing debates surrounding AI and intellectual property rights.

Read more:
Meta employees discussed buying Simon & Schuster to train AI models, report reveals

0
FacebookTwitterGoogle +Pinterest
previous post
King Charles Presented with New Banknotes Featuring His Image
next post
7.4 Million UK Consumers Struggle to Pay Bills, Financial Regulator Finds

You may also like

Millions halt pensions to pay their bills amid...

December 29, 2022

Female business owners offered £18,000 business boost with...

August 21, 2024

Average UK rents hit record highs with £2,500...

May 1, 2023

Late Payment Crisis still plagues UK SMEs with...

July 12, 2023

International payment concerns stop SMEs from expanding overseas 

January 25, 2024

UK consumers lose £580m to fraudsters in first...

October 25, 2023

6 Reasons Why Software Development Is Important?

January 17, 2025

6 Essentials Startups Need To Survive in 2024

November 2, 2023

Ten million calls to HMRC go unanswered as...

September 3, 2023

Shein puts London IPO on hold amid Trump’s...

May 2, 2025

    Get free access to all of the retirement secrets and income strategies from our experts! or Join The Exclusive Subscription Today And Get the Premium Articles Acess for Free

    By opting in you agree to receive emails from us and our affiliates. Your information is secure and your privacy is protected.

    Recent Posts

    • Half of Brits would trust AI for legal advice, survey finds – but experts urge caution

      June 9, 2025
    • Business leaders paralysed by risk warn BDO as caution stifles growth

      June 9, 2025
    • Starmer pledges £1bn investment to supercharge UK tech and AI infrastructure

      June 9, 2025
    • 5 terrifying flashpoints that could ignite global war

      June 9, 2025
    • HMRC inheritance tax investigations surge 37% as treasury seeks to plug revenue gap

      June 9, 2025
    • Believ secures £300m to roll out 30,000 public EV charge points across the UK

      June 9, 2025

    Categories

    • Business (8,161)
    • Investing (2,019)
    • Politics (15,572)
    • Stocks (3,136)
    • About us
    • Privacy Policy
    • Terms & Conditions

    Disclaimer: futureretirementsuccess.com, its managers, its employees, and assigns (collectively “The Company”) do not make any guarantee or warranty about what is advertised above. Information provided by this website is for research purposes only and should not be considered as personalized financial advice. The Company is not affiliated with, nor does it receive compensation from, any specific security. The Company is not registered or licensed by any governing body in any jurisdiction to give investing advice or provide investment recommendation. Any investments recommended here should be taken into consideration only after consulting with your investment advisor and after reviewing the prospectus or financial statements of the company.

    Copyright © 2025 futureretirementsuccess.com | All Rights Reserved