An open letter from authors including Lauren Groff, Lev Grossman, R.F. Kuang, Dennis Lehane, and Geoffrey Maguire is calling out book publishers over AI use. The letter demands publishers limit AI tools and commit to hiring only human audiobook narrators.
The authors say their work has been “stolen” by AI companies. Instead of paying writers a cut, AI firms profit from unpaid labor.
They want publishers to pledge never to release AI-created books or replace human staff with AI tools. They also oppose turning employees into mere AI monitors. 
> “Rather than paying writers a small percentage of the money our work makes for them, someone else will be paid for a technology built on our unpaid labor.”
> “Make a pledge that they will never release books that were created by machine” and “not replace their human staff with AI tools or degrade their positions into AI monitors.”
The letter quickly grew from a strong initial roster to over 1,100 signatures in just 24 hours, according to NPR.
Legal battles are also in play. Authors sued tech companies for using their books to train AI models. But federal judges dealt significant blows to those cases earlier this week.
