As soon as you type “AI and plagiarism” into an internet search engine, you’ll see a plethora of articles (especially across university websites) warning how using AI tools to write can be considered plagiarism.
With these search terms, it takes a little more digging to find as many discussions about how AI as a technology breaches ethical boundaries of copyright, plagiarism, and compensation in accumulating its stores of data — a serious and troubling act already rendered illegal under current law. In support of writers across all mediums and industries, I’ve compiled a short reading list about the legal ramifications of AI, and I hope you’ll read and share them:
1. Knight, Lucy. “Authors Call for AI Companies to Stop Using their Work Without Consent.” The Guardian, July 20, 2023. The Authors Guild Letter, signed by more than 10,000 authors, asks that AI industries address the exploitation of writers by compensating and obtaining permissions for works that have been used without consent, attribution, and/or in violation of copyright laws. Lucy Knight reports on this letter, as well as the UK’s Society of Authors response to AI, in The Guardian.
2. Novak, Matt. “Google’s New AI-Powered Search is a Beautiful Plagiarism Machine.” Forbes, May 30, 2023. In this Forbes article, Matt Novak breaks down exactly how much Google’s AI-powered search copies other works.
3. Bailey, Jonathan. “Is Plagiarism a Feature of Artificial Intelligence?” Plagiarism Today, March 23, 2023. But not all AI machines give credit where credit is due. Plus, as any academic knows, just because you attribute a source doesn’t make it not plagiarism. Jonathan Bailey discusses the issue on his website.
4. Friedman, Jane. “I Would Rather See My Books Get Pirated Than This (Or: Why Goodreads and Amazon Are Becoming Dumpster Fires).” Jane Friedman, August 7, 2023. With AI it’s not just an issue of unattributed and plagiarized works; some authors, such as Jane Friedman, have even lost control over their own name and what gets published under it.
As a staunch supporter of artists, I believe we must be aware of the dangerous precedents set by allowing corporations to use AI without accountability.
Please share more resources in the comments below!
