Language Educators Assemble’s Post

There’s something proundly wrong and unsustainable about all this. I didn’t get paid a dime for writing for Routledge, so my expectations are not exactly high, but now having your work opened up to being plagiarized by an AI bot is a stepping deep into “you must be joking territory”. The outcome is lose - lose. Only generic blah will ever now appear in official publication. The real stuff will be retained in self published material, online courses, artisan writing and possibly open-sourced AI under suthor’s control. Generic closed AI will become dumber and dumber. If our tech oveords actually found out how artists, designers and academics worked, there might still be a chance for a sensible accommodation. As it is the drive towards monopolisation will have the entirely contradictory effect, and foster fragmentation and a web of paywalls.

AI, Intellectual and Academic Work, and the Path Forward. "Dr Ruth Alison Clemens, a lecturer in modern English literature whose work has been published by the academic publisher Taylor & Francis, which owns Routledge, had sold access to its authors’ research as part of an Artificial Intelligence (AI) partnership with Microsoft—a deal worth almost £8m ($10m) in its first year. She claimed authors hadn’t been contacted about the AI deal." The situation involving any publisher selling access to academic research to any AI-related company brings up several thought-provoking questions and concerns that remain a "gray area." 1- There's the matter of intellectual property rights and the autonomy of scholars over their work. This deal might signal a shift in how academic content is controlled and used, potentially without the explicit consent of the authors whose work forms the basis of vast databases. 2- The ethical dimensions of this kind of agreement are considerable. It raises questions about the extent to which academic work should be utilized to train AI systems that could potentially return profits to private entities. The balance between advancing technological capabilities and respecting the academic community's contributions and rights is delicate. 3- Identifying the broader impact on the academic publishing industry. This move might set a precedent for how academic outputs are accessed and monetized, influencing future negotiations and agreements between academic institutions, publishers, and technology companies. This highlights the need for clear policies and guidelines that protect the interests of academic contributors while embracing the possibilities of new technologies. These issues underline the complexities at the intersection of academia and commercial technology interests, requiring careful consideration from all stakeholders involved. A recent, somewhat, parallel example is through the field of arts and the SAG-AFTRA. I am curious about your thoughts.

Taylor and Francis recently sold access to their catalogue of publications to Microsoft AI. As an author who has published with Routledge (owned by Taylor and Francis), this article is the first I've heard of this news. The article notes that authors were not apprised of this deal or given the choice to opt out, which I can confirm. The publisher typically holds copyright to works they publish, so legally, they have the right to sell access as they see fit without consent from authors. But selling ebook access through a third party is significantly different from selling access to train AI on original work. The fact that Taylor and Francis chose to withhold information about this deal from authors suggests to me that they knew the news wouldn't sit well. I'm still sorting out my reaction to this news. How will AI's decontextualization of my work affect its productive use? How might it lead to misinterpretations and misrepresentations of my research? How will it affect future research we conduct related to that original project? Will AI properly attribute the information it shares? Academic publishing is not a money maker for most authors anyway, but how will it affect royalties? I have a lot of questions. If anyone has possible positive outcomes, please share to lift my mood. I'm feeling pretty negative about this today. I can say for certain it makes me reconsider publishing any future works with Taylor and Francis.

Expect to see much, much more of this. Large language models need human generated data. Publishers and health systems have a lot: https://lnkd.in/er556qn8 Academic publisher Taylor & Francis, which owns Routledge, has sold access to its authors’ research as part of an Artificial Intelligence (AI) partnership with Microsoft—a deal worth almost £8m ($10m) in its first year. The agreement, details of which were published by Informa during a trading update in May, states that Informa will be paid $10m+ for "an initial data access" of the works it has the rights to, with a recurring payment of an undisclosed sum to be made over the subsequent three years. When contacted by The Bookseller, Taylor & Francis said it is "protecting the integrity of our authors’ work and limits on verbatim text reproduction, as well as authors’ rights to receive royalty payments in accordance with their author contracts". Informa is expecting revenues to reach just shy of £3.5bn in the current financial year, up from £3.2bn in 2023.

If you are a Routledge author(and there are many of you I know personally) please take a serious look at this article on some tricky issues with AI. Taylor and Francis that owns Routledge has sold authors’ intellectual property as part of a deal with Microsoft. I don’t know what the implications of this arrangement are, but you might want to speak with your editor to find out more. #books #publishing #AI #caution

The academic publications already exploit the academics and make a huge revenue as explained in the following article; https://lnkd.in/g-VxNWjk In such a context selling authors' data for AI research and without author's consent is a massive ethical and intellectual property issue, as highlighted in the following article; https://lnkd.in/gRi2AcgW It says, "Authors have expressed their shock after the news that academic publisher Taylor & Francis, which owns Routledge, had sold access to its authors’ research as part of an Artificial Intelligence (AI) partnership with Microsoft—a deal worth almost £8m ($10m) in its first year. The agreement with Microsoft was included in a trading update by the publisher’s parent company in May this year. However, academics published by the group claim they have not been told about the AI deal, were not given the opportunity to opt out and are receiving no extra payment for the use of their research by the tech company." How far, the current AI frameworks address this issue? #rightsofacademia #AIethics

Taylor & Francis Group strikes a deal with Microsoft and enables the tech giant access academic articles. According to The Bookseller Microsoft will be paying 8 million pounds for the first year of the deal alone. Read more here and let's discuss ethical and moral concerns. https://lnkd.in/egT9ETeB a) authors were not given an opt-out, meaning their work will be used without their consent; b) AI will look much smarter by copying the brains of the best scholars in the world; c) Nobody knows if the authors will be compensated for the whole sale and the subsequent use, reuse or reproduction of their publications; d) Is it OK to mass plagiarize if a corporation pays millions and does not properly cite the authors; e) Shall academics stop giving their articles for free to these publications and universities resume publishing their own journals?

Learn more about how research publishers are using Hum: to promote resources to Chinese authors; to target interdisciplinary authors for calls for papers; and to support Read & Publish deals. Using data and AI there are so many ways to communicate directly to segments of an audience with offers that you know will resonate

Academic publisher sells their library access to AI....expect more of it in the future; most of the contracts that authors sign are giving over the rights and often clauses about future and unidentified uses. The big publishers continue to rent-seek & exploit scholars...expect all the other major academic publishers. It's easy money on top of what they are already bleeding out of college and university libraries: https://lnkd.in/em723iUu

LongWriter AI's ability to generate coherent texts exceeding 10,000 words is a game-changer in content creation. While industries like publishing and education may benefit from more efficient content production, the technology's potential to spread mid-quality content and increase competition for human writers cannot be ignored. This development marks a pivotal shift in our relationship with written communication. For further details, read the article at