Penguin Random House Modifies Its Copyright Rules to Safeguard Authors from Artificial Intelligence.

Creators of artificial intelligence have faced numerous criticisms for using the work of others to train their models. In response, one of the largest publishing houses in the world has decided to take action to protect its authors from potential plagiarism in the name of technological advancement.

Recently, Penguin Random House Publishing modified the copyright page in its books to clarify that no part of its titles can be used or reproduced for the purpose of training technologies or artificial intelligence systems. The new wording states: "No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner for the purpose of training technologies or artificial intelligence systems."

Additionally, the modification includes a clause that protects against data scraping, noting that the publisher "expressly reserves [the titles] from the text and data mining exception." This addition stems from a recent directive by the European Parliament regarding text and data mining exceptions and ownership.

Penguin Random House joins other publishers that have taken strong measures against the misuse of artificial intelligence models. For example, earlier this week, The New York Times sent a cease and desist letter to the AI startup Perplexity for using its articles and stories to help its model generate responses for users.