{"id":224448,"date":"2025-05-05T08:35:56","date_gmt":"2025-05-05T08:35:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/peraltafinancing.com\/entertainment\/books\/the-genesis-of-artificial-intelligence-in-todays-world-by-eva-wong-nava\/"},"modified":"2025-05-05T08:35:56","modified_gmt":"2025-05-05T08:35:56","slug":"the-genesis-of-artificial-intelligence-in-todays-world-by-eva-wong-nava","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=224448","title":{"rendered":"The Genesis of Artificial Intelligence In Today\u2019s World — by Eva Wong Nava"},"content":{"rendered":"


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I’m glad the headline got your attention. By now, creators from around the world have either been informed by their publishers or told by their agents and\/or writer friends that their work has been pilfered from Library Genesis<\/a>\u00a0or LibGen for AI training. LibGen is essentially a free file-sharing platform allowing people access to books, journals, magazines, and academic papers, amongst other forms of literature that are otherwise paywalled.\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

It is good to note that LibGen isn\u2019t strictly legal, though it is out there in the internet like everything else these days. You can access PDFs of almost anything you care to download but users have warned against malware and viruses entering their systems. I guess the Universe (even the Metaverse) will find a way to punish thieves.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The recent thievery involves M__ta (whose name shall not be uttered) stealing over \u201c7.5 million books and 81 million research papers\u201d \u2014 i.e., copyrighted bodies of work \u2014 to train their AI. Artificial Intelligence, unlike artificial sweeteners, is not sweet at all.\u00a0 <\/span>In fact, AI leaves a bitter taste in most people\u2019s mouths whose works have been stolen.\u00a0And like consuming too much saccharine and aspartame can be carcinogenic, using too much intelligence purporting to be intelligent can be mind-numbing.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

On a sunshiny day in March, my WhatsApp pinged with a message telling me \u2018Eva your work has been stolen to train M__ta\u2019s AI!!!\u2019 This was from a friend on the other side of the ocean who had read an article in The Atlantic<\/a> \u2014 The Unbelievable Scale of AI\u2019s Pirated-Books Problem \u2014<\/i> by <\/i>Alex Reisner that detailed how M_ta had \u201cpirated millions of books to train its AI\u201d, and you can search for them using the search tool provided in the article.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

So I did.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

And this was what I found<\/a>.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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Am I to feel relieved that only ONE book of mine has been stolen? Was I to question why they only picked The House of Little Sisters <\/i>and not the others? <\/i>Surely the rest of my books are equally good for the pilfering and to train AI, even though they’re not award-winning ones?\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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Hang on a minute! What is this madness? Nobody should be stealing anybody\u2019s books \u2014 this should be the first thing I should\u2019ve thought of. The madness of it all, and I am mad. Not crazy, but crazy angry! And I am not the only one!\u00a0There are millions of crazily angry authors out there!\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

It is mad and maddening that a tech bro who goes by \u201cMZ\u201d could\u2019ve given his team permission to download the \u201c7.5 million books and 81 million research papers\u201d from LibGen for purely selfish reasons \u2014 his artificial intelligence machines needed to be trained — and he could gain more gazillions training AI. Apparently, according to the Society of Authors, the tech bro\u2019s company had \u201cdiscussed licensing books and research papers lawfully\u201d. However, \u201cit was faster and cheaper\u201d to just steal them!<\/p>\n

Since then, the Society of Authors has started a petition, asking authors for their signatures.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\u201cWe have written to the Right Hon Lisa Nandy, Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, demanding that Meta is held to account by the UK government following allegations in the U.S. that authors\u2019 works have been used without permission or remuneration to train its AI model. Please add your name to the open letter to help us raise authors\u2019 voices.\u201d\u00a0(source<\/a>)<\/span><\/p>\n

The irony is that we\u2019re all using the platform of the company whose lack of moral compass we despise to spread the word about their lack of moral compass and to garner support to bring M_ta down. Perhaps there is something very meta about all this, after all. I may jest but the reality is that we\u2019re all trapped in the Metaworld.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Okay, maybe we can\u2019t bring them down, because they are bigger than us. But we can knock them asunder, cause havoc, run amok, or use our voices to raise awareness of what M_ta did! This is also about living authors speaking up for dead ones, because although copyright lasts for the authors\u2019 lifetime plus 70 or more years, there are some recently deceased authors who can\u2019t speak up.\u00a0If you admire Hilary Mantel, you might consider speaking up.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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We can also read this book: Careless People<\/i>: The explosive memoir that Meta doesn’t want you to read. Written by Sarah Wynn-Williams<\/span>, a former \u201cMZ\u201d employee, whose memoir outlines the 7 years of madness Wynn-Williams saw and heard first hand. MZ tried to ban the book\u2026 but of course he would! This is a memoir that \u201cwill change how you see the world.\u201d<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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Double this by signing the SoA Petition<\/a>.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

I\u2019d like to end this article with an ironical screenshot because hashtag if you know you know<\/i>. I wonder if she\u2019s leaning in to sue her former boss for theft!\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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