AI voice and text-to-speech provider ElevenLabs issued a press release celebrating their expanding relationship with Bertelsmann and its subsidiaries. “So far, 36 Bertelsmann companies are using our technology to improve production and try new approaches. AI dubbing and multi-language audio are just the start. Together, we’re finding ways to share stories across languages and formats, reaching more people in more places.” Storytel invested in ElevenLabs and has been working with them to produce AI-narrated audiobooks since mid-2023. And Harper Collins started working with ElevenLabs earlier this year to create AI audiobooks of select foreign language backlist titles. In June, ElevenLabs […]
AI
Microsoft Is HarperCollins’ AI Licensee
Bloomberg’s Hannah Miller and Dina Bass reported that Microsoft is the large tech company that has a licensing deal with HarperCollins for nonfiction books to train AI models, “according to a person familiar with the matter.” That person indicates, “Microsoft wants the HarperCollins books for a model that it hasn’t yet announced…. The company isn’t planning to use the content to generate new books without human authors, the person said.” Harper Collins had said previously in a statement that their licensing deal authorized “limited use of select nonfiction backlist titles for training AI models to improve model quality and performance.”
Authors Guild CEO Says Harper “Struck A Good Deal” for AI Licensing
Authors Guild ceo Mary Rasenberger and her staff have been actively engaged in representing authors’ interests in the battle to take back control of copyrighted work in an AI world, and monetize those rights if they choose. Speaking to PL about Harper’s new deal to license a body of backlist nonfiction works to a large AI company for authors who elect to consent, and with certain contractual guardrails in place, Rasenberger told us: “We really appreciate that Harper has taken the initiative and thought through how to protect works and keep AI from taking away from any existing value of […]
Harper Strikes Deal to License Nonfiction Books for AI; Makes Offer to Authors
Harper Collins has negotiated a licensing agreement with the one of the major AI companies “to allow limited use of select nonfiction backlist titles for training AI models to improve model quality and performance.” The company has briefed some agents on the deal and started by making offers to a modest set of authors to sign a contract amendment agreeing to participate in the deal. They say in a statement to PL, “While we believe this deal is attractive, we respect the various views of our authors, and they have the choice to opt in to the agreement or to […]
VBK To Test AI Translation Into English
Dutch publisher VBK, acquired earlier this year by Simon & Schuster, will test out AI translation of their books into English, the Bookseller reports. According to the Bookseller, a small number of books are being translated, and only in cases when the English rights haven’t been sold. A VBK spokesperson said, “We are working on a limited experiment with some Dutch authors, for their books to be translated into English language using AI. There will be one editing phase, and authors have been asked to give permission for this. “We are not creating books with AI, it all starts and […]
Former OpenAI Staffer Claims AI Training Is Not Fair Use
A former researcher at OpenAI has spoken out against the company’s use of copyrighted data in a detailed, publicly posted analysis, reported on further by the NYT (which is suing OpenAI for copyright infringement). Suchir Balaji left OpenAI in protest “because he no longer wanted to contribute to technologies that he believed would bring society more harm than benefit.” Early versions of the company’s technology were treated as research projects, which meant employees felt free to train them on any data without worrying about permissions and usage, Balaji told the Times. But as ChatGPT-4 became a commercial product, OpenAI failed […]