{"id":467394,"date":"2026-03-10T07:55:07","date_gmt":"2026-03-10T07:55:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/467394\/"},"modified":"2026-03-10T07:55:07","modified_gmt":"2026-03-10T07:55:07","slug":"thousands-of-authors-publish-empty-book-in-protest-over-ai-using-their-work-ai-artificial-intelligence","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/467394\/","title":{"rendered":"Thousands of authors publish \u2018empty\u2019 book in protest over AI using their work | AI (artificial intelligence)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Thousands of authors including Kazuo Ishiguro, Philippa Gregory<\/a> and Richard Osman have published an \u201cempty\u201d book to protest against AI firms using their work without permission.<\/p>\n

About 10,000 writers have contributed to Don\u2019t Steal This Book, in which the only content is a list of their names. Copies of the work are being distributed to attenders at the London book fair on Tuesday, a week before the UK government is due to issue an assessment on the economic cost of proposed changes in copyright law.<\/p>\n

By 18 March ministers must deliver an economic impact assessment as well as a progress update on a consultation about the legal overhaul, against a backdrop of anger among creative professionals about how their work is being used by AI firms.<\/p>\n

The organiser of the book, Ed Newton-Rex, a composer and campaigner for protecting artists\u2019 copyright, said the AI industry was \u201cbuilt on stolen work \u2026 taken without permission or payment\u201d.<\/p>\n

He added: \u201cThis is not a victimless crime \u2013 generative AI competes with the people whose work it is trained on, robbing them of their livelihoods. The government must protect the UK\u2019s creatives, and refuse to legalise the theft of creative work by AI companies.\u201d<\/p>\n

Other authors who have contributed their names to the book include the Slow Horses author, Mick Herron; the author Marian Keyes; the historian David Olusoga; and Malorie Blackman, the writer of Noughts and Crosses<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is not in any way unreasonable to expect AI companies to pay for the use of authors\u2019 books,\u201d said Blackman.<\/p>\n

The composer Ed Newton-Rex, who organised the book, said the AI industry was \u2018built on stolen work\u2019. Photograph: Jill Mead\/The Guardian<\/p>\n

The books\u2019s back cover says: \u201cThe UK government must not legalise book theft to benefit AI companies.\u201d<\/p>\n

Publishers will also launch an AI licensing initiative at the London book fair. Publishers\u2019 Licensing Services, a non-profit industry body, is setting up a collective licensing scheme and has invited the sector to sign up to it in the expectation it will give legal access to published works.<\/p>\n

AI requires vast amounts of data, including copyright-protected work taken from the open web, to develop tools such as chatbots and image generators<\/a>. This has caused consternation among creative professionals and companies worldwide, triggering lawsuits on both sides<\/a> of the Atlantic.<\/p>\n

Last year Anthropic, a leading AI firm and the developer of the Claude chatbot, agreed to pay $1.5bn (\u00a31.1bn)<\/a> to settle a class-action lawsuit by book authors<\/a> who said the startup took pirated copies of their works to train its flagship product.<\/p>\n

British artists have responded with outrage at the main government proposal in the consultation. It proposes letting AI firms use copyright-protected work without the owner\u2019s permission \u2013 unless the owner has signalled that they want to opt out of the process. Elton John is among the artists to have protested over the prospect of a relaxation in copyright law<\/a>, calling the government \u201cabsolute losers\u201d.<\/p>\n

As well as the main government proposal, ministers have suggested three further options: to leave the situation unchanged; to require AI companies to seek licences for using copyrighted work; or to allow AI firms to use copyrighted work with no opt-out for creative companies and individuals.<\/p>\n

The government has also refused to rule out a copyright waiver for using material for the purposes of \u201ccommercial research\u201d, which creative professionals fear could be exploited by AI firms to take artists\u2019 work without permission.<\/p>\n

A government spokesperson said: \u201cThe government wants a copyright regime that values and protects human creativity, can be trusted, and unlocks innovation. We will continue to engage closely with the creative sector on this issue, and we will meet our commitment to update parliament by March 18th.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Thousands of authors including Kazuo Ishiguro, Philippa Gregory and Richard Osman have published an \u201cempty\u201d book to protest…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":467395,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[554,733,4308,86,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-467394","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-artificial-intelligence","8":"tag-ai","9":"tag-artificial-intelligence","10":"tag-artificialintelligence","11":"tag-technology","12":"tag-uk","13":"tag-united-kingdom","14":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/467394","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=467394"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/467394\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/467395"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=467394"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=467394"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=467394"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}