George R.R. Martin Shares His Stance on AI Amid Author’s Guild Lawsuit

A year after the Authors Guild filed a lawsuit against OpenAI, plaintiff George R.R. Martin is sharing his opinions.

By CaLea Johnson |
The Song of Fire and Ice author voices his concerns about AI.
The Song of Fire and Ice author voices his concerns about AI. / Martin Davis

The unapproved use of people’s creations to train AI software has become an issue in recent years. Writers are hardly immune to this problem. On September 20, 2023, George R.R. Martin and 16 other authors partnered with the Authors Guild to sue OpenAI for using their work to train ChatGPT. The Game of Thrones author recently spoke with Winter Is Coming about his thoughts on the legal battle and the use of the technology in general.

The Authors Guild is an organization that advocates for the rights of writers, including copyright protection. According to its website, the association issued the lawsuit because OpenAI replicated authors’ works without notice or compensation.

In George R.R. Martin’s case, ChatGPT was used in an attempt to generate volumes six and seven of the author’s popular book series, A Song of Ice and Fire. Despite his involvement in the lawsuit, Martin recently stated that AI cannot be outlawed, as “it’s here to stay.” However, he feels there are important things to address regarding the technology.

Martin told Winter Is Coming in an exclusive interview, “The question is: What kind of regulations are you gonna have? What rules are there going to be? I mean, if you do use a book to train AI, does the author get to consent to the use of the book? Does the author have any say about it? Does the author get any income from it?”

Three months after filing the suit against OpenAI, the Authors Guild listed Microsoft as another defendant [PDF]. Authors joining Martin as plaintiffs include David Baldacci, Jonathan Franzen, John Grisham, Jodi Picoult, and George Saunders.

For most authors, writing isn’t a particularly lucrative career to begin with. The Guild’s author income survey showed that the typical full-time author made roughly $20,000 from book revenue and other related activities in 2022. The proliferation of cheap AI writing tools that rely on copyrighted works could make earning a living as an author even harder in the future.

Professionals in creative fields aren't the only ones who should worry about being fodder for Al. If you’re curious if your posts or images have been used to train bots, you can search Have I Been Trained to find out.

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