Penguin Random House (PRH), the largest of the Big Five publishing companies, has objected to the use of its published works to train AI.
As first reported by The Bookseller, PRH has changed its copyright language targeting AI. The new rules state: “No part of this document may be used or reproduced in any way for the purpose of training artificial intelligence techniques or systems.” This statement will appear on all new titles and reprints of backlist titles in PRH publications.
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PRH changes its copyright language to combat AI training, making it the first of the Big Five publishers to take such action against AI, at least publicly. Mashable has reached out to the remaining five major industry publishers: Hachette, HarperCollins, Macmillan, and Simon & Schuster for comment.
PRH’s move is the latest in a series of copyright lawsuits by publishers against AI scraping. In late 2023, the New York Times sued OpenAI and Microsoft for copyright infringement, and in October 2024 it also sent a cease-and-desist letter to Jeff Bezos-backed AI startup Perplexity. And who can blame companies that allow AI to be trained on seemingly anything from X number of posts to LinkedIn data?
Topic Artificial Intelligence Books
