The Authors Guild and online platform Created by Humans have launched a partnership enabling authors to license their works to AI developers.

The guild, which is the largest professional organisation for writers in the US, said that the partnership aims to help protect and promote authors’ rights in the age of AI, ensuring that authors who retain their copyrights are “in the driver’s seat when it comes to AI licensing” – so that authors can decide if, when and how AI companies use their works.

AI companies like ChatGPT creator OpenAI have faced a slew of lawsuits from novelists and performers like Sarah Silverman and US media organisation The New York Times who have accused them of using their copyrightable material without their permission to train their large language models (LLMs).

The aims of the platform, the guild says, is to offer authors a clear path to control, manage and monetise their content while giving AI developers access to high-quality, curated written works with the full consent of rightsholders.  

Mary Rasenberger, CEO of the Authors Guild, said that the platform provides authors who are interested in engaging with AI platforms “a way to do so on their own terms, ensuring they have a say in how their work is used and are fairly compensated for it”.  

She noted that generative AI is “here to stay and it does not appear that all the books LLMs have been trained on can be effectively purged”.

“We urgently need to give control back to authors and their publishers, and licensing is the means to accomplish that going forward,” she added.

The Authors Guild notes that licensing is already happening, with publishers and publications striking deals with AI companies in most cases without consultation with the authors.

In the UK in April, the Financial Times struck a “strategic partnership” and licensing agreement with OpenAI. OpenAI has also signed a deal to bring news content from the Wall Street Journal, the New York Post, the Times and the Sunday Times to the AI platform.

The platform will open for authors and publishers to register their choices later this year and should be ready to offer licences to AI companies in early 2025.

Trip Adleris, co-founder and CEO of Created by Humans, said: “This collaboration shows that it is possible to build ethical AI systems that respect creators’ rights while advancing technology. Authors maintain control of their work and gain a new revenue stream, while AI developers get access to authorised, accurate, high-quality content.” 

As part of the partnership, Authors Guild CEO Mary Rasenberger will serve on the Created by Humans advisory board. 

The platform can be found here.