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

Best Casinos Not on Gamstop 2024 – Top...

August 9, 2024

Rise in flexible working sees employees taking advantage...

July 8, 2024

Elon Musk set to charge Twitter elite $8...

November 2, 2022

Google Voice and its Limitations in the UK:...

June 7, 2023

UK Inflation to Rise Past 18% in Gas...

August 22, 2022

UK House Prices Expected to Stagnate in 2024,...

June 14, 2024

Embracing spiritual capitalism for economic sustainability

October 10, 2022

Rolex demand children’s clock startup change name in...

January 19, 2023

Transforming Education: How Roedean School Headmaster Oliver Blond...

February 8, 2023

Secrets of Success: Dr Ed Gladman, CEO Adlington...

November 27, 2023

    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

    • Iran regime escalates repression toward ‘North Korea-style model of isolation and control’

      July 4, 2025
    • UK revealed as Europe’s worst country for commuters in new ranking

      July 4, 2025
    • This July 4th, a family waits: American hostage’s father pleads for son’s freedom from Hamas terrorists

      July 4, 2025
    • $88m methane-tracking satellite lost in space, dealing major blow to climate monitoring

      July 4, 2025
    • New US visa rules will force foreign students to unlock social media profiles

      July 4, 2025
    • The real Formula 1: British Grand Prix highlights UK’s £16bn motorsport economy

      July 4, 2025

    Categories

    • Business (8,393)
    • Investing (2,102)
    • Politics (15,945)
    • Stocks (3,189)
    • 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