Data revolts erupt against A.I.

Fed up with AI. companies consuming online content without consent, fanfiction writers, actors, social media companies and news outlets are among those rebelling.

For more than 20 years, Kit Loffstadt has been writing fan fiction exploring alternate universes for "Star Wars" heroes and "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" villains, sharing his stories for free online.

But in May, Ms. Loffstadt stopped publishing her creations after learning that a data company had copied her stories and fed them into the artificial intelligence technology underlying ChatGPT, the viral chatbot. Appalled, she hid her writing behind a locked account.

Ms. Loffstadt also helped organize an act of rebellion last month against A.I. systems. Along with dozens of other fanfiction writers, she has posted a flood of irreverent stories online to overwhelm and confuse the data-gathering services that power the work of A.I. tech writers.

"We each need to do everything we can to show them that the outcome of our creativity is not for the machines to harvest as they wish," said Ms. Loffstadt, a 42-year-old voice actor. originally from South Yorkshire in Great Britain.

Fanfiction writers are just one of the groups now organizing revolts against the A.I. systems as tech fever gripped Silicon Valley and the world. Over the past few months, social media companies such as Reddit and Twitter, news outlets such as The New York Times and NBC News, authors such as Paul Tremblay and actress Sarah Silverman have all taken a stand against A.I. aspiring their data without permission.

Their protests took different forms. Writers and artists are locking their files to protect their work or boycotting certain websites that publish AI-generated content, while companies like Reddit want to charge for access to their data. At least 10 lawsuits have been filed this year against A.I. companies, accusing them of training their systems on the creative work of artists without their consent. Last week, Ms. Silverman and authors Christopher Golden and Richard Kadrey sued OpenAI, the creator of ChatGPT, and others over A.I.'s use of their work.

ImageActress Sarah Silverman is among the creative professionals who have sued A.I. Enterprises over copyright infringement.Credit...Mark Sommerfeld for The New York Times articles, message board posts, and photos - may have significant untapped value.

The New Wave of A.I. - known as "generative A.I". for the text, images and other content it generates — relies on complex systems such as large language models, capable of producing human prose. These models are trained on hordes of all kinds of data so they can answer people's questions, mimic writing styles, or produce comedy and poetry.