Former Sinn Féin president Gerry Adams is among a number of authors whose books may have been accessed by technology company Meta to train their latest AI (artificial intelligence) model.
Mr. Adams stated that the books were “used without his consent,” and the issue is now being handled by his lawyer.
An investigation by
The Atlantic magazine
Meta might have used millions of pirated books and research papers from Library Genesis – also known as LibGen – to train its generative artificial intelligence system, Llama.
A spokesperson for Meta said: “We respect third-party intellectual property rights and believe our use of information to train AI models is consistent with existing law.”
The Atlantic magazine additionally released a database listing books that were pirated by LibGen, enabling numerous authors to discover whether their works are featured on the platform.
When GaptekZoneNews NI searched the database a number of authors from Northern Ireland appeared on the list, including Jan Carson, Lynne Graham, Deric Henderson, and Booker prize winner Anna Burns.
Writers globally have been initiating movements to prompt authorities to take action.
Meta, the company behind Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp, is presently defending itself against a lawsuit filed by numerous authors concerning the usage of their material.
‘Highest earning heist in history’
Michael Taylor, a historian hailing from Ballymena, expressed frustration that Meta might have utilized his research without permission.
Two of his works, “The Interest” and “Impossible Monsters,” can be found in the LibGen database.
“Writers spend years on their books, and contrary to what anybody thinks, very few people make enough money out of writing to live by their pen,” he said.
“Meta might be worth more than a trillion dollars, and it might be politically untouchable, but by violating the copyright of so many thousands of books, its actions amount to the single greatest and the most lucrative act of theft in history.”
Prof Monica McWilliams is an academic and former politician who has written extensively about the Northern Ireland peace process and domestic violence.
Over 20 of her scholarly articles and publications are featured in the database, covering topics such as intimate partner violence and domestic abuse against women in times of conflict.
When it caught her notice, she deemed it “rather startling.”
“The primary rule in academia is to guide your readers to your source materials, which is not occurring here,” she stated.
This raises the question of what copyright actually means nowadays.
Professor McWilliams gives away the money earned from selling her writings to support domestic violence charities such as Women’s Aid.
Should royalties fail to be paid for using the work, in the end, it is the charitable organizations that will suffer losses.
Copyright law is not complicated at all. If you want to use an author's work you need to ask for permission. If you use it without permission you're breaking the law. It's so simple. It'll be incredibly difficult for us, and for other affected industries, to take on Meta, but… https://t.co/8if1SnTXDC
— Richard Osman (@richardosman) March 23, 2025
Last week, writers convened in London to demonstrate against Meta’s activities, with prominent authors such as Kate Mosse, Richard Osman, and Val McDermid signing an open letter urging Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy to summon Meta executives for questioning in Parliament.
On X, Richard Osman, the author of the bestselling Thursday Murder Club series, stated: “The concept of copyright law is extremely straightforward. Should you wish to utilize an author’s work, it is necessary to seek approval.”
Using it without authorization is against the law. It’s really straightforward.
Taking on Meta will be extremely challenging for us and other impacted sectors, but we’re going to give it our best shot!
What is Llama?
A llama is a significant language model, also known as an LLM, akin to OpenAI’s ChatGPT and Google’s Gemini.
These systems receive vast quantities of information and learn to identify trends within them. Using this data, they generate blocks of text by anticipating the subsequent word in a series.
Even though these systems are called intelligent, critics contend that LLMs do not actually “think,” possess no comprehension of their output, and can assertively present inaccuracies as truths.
Technology firms assert that they require additional data to enhance the reliability of these systems; however, writers, artists, and other creators maintain that they should compensate them for this access.
- “Voices must be raised”: Writers object to Meta using their content for AI training
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