O’Donoghue calls on government to side with artists over Big Tech in AI row

Labour TD Rob O’Donoghue has called on the government to side with Irish writers over Big Tech following allegations that Meta used pirated literary content to train its artificial intelligence models.

The 2020s, thus far, have been defined by the generative artificial intelligence boom, but concerns have been raised in the arts sector that the boom is being built on their work.

A group of Irish artists have handed in a petition to the Department of Trade, alleging that their work has been used by Meta, the owners of Facebook, to train their new AI model.

The Irish Writers Union has highlighted that copyrighted works by the likes of Irish playwrights, poets, screenwriters, and novelists have been found in Meta’s “Library Genesis,” which it uses to train its model.

In August 2023, an article by American magazine The Atlantic found that novels by the likes of Stephen King, Margaret Atwood, and Haruki Murakami were used by Meta in the training model.

O’Donoghue, who serves as Labour’s arts spokesperson, said the allegations are “serious” and that the government needs to take the side of artists.

“Irish writers are standing up to one of the world’s most powerful tech companies, and they deserve the full backing of the Irish government,” he said.

“This is a clear issue of copyright and compensation. Meta’s actions, if proven, are in breach of Irish and EU copyright law. Writers have a right to be paid for their work. The creative sector faces enough challenges without billion-dollar corporations helping themselves to books, stories and ideas.”

“The Irish Writers Union has delivered a petition with over 1,500 signatures to the Department of Enterprise and Trade, calling for Meta to be held accountable. Labour fully supports this petition and the writers behind it.”

The Dublin Fingal West TD said, “we are calling for the government to engage directly with the Writers Union and clarify what legal protections are in place to prevent the unauthorised use of Irish literary work in AI training, instead of bowing down to US tech giants.”

“We need to send a strong signal that creative work has value. Writers, artists, and creators must be respected in the digital age—big tech can’t just take their work and shrug off responsibility.

“We’ve seen protests, court action, and growing public anger. It’s time for the government to step up and back the people who shape and share our national culture.”

The 2023 writers and actors strike, which brought Hollywood film and television productions to a standstill, saw creatives go on strike for months and brought wider attention to the struggles creatives face in the age of AI.

IWU chair Conor McAnally said, “it is difficult enough to make a living as a writer without billionaires deciding it’s too inconvenient to pay for our work.”

“Meta claims to respect copyright and the law, but the revelations in the Atlantic article on their use of the LibGen pirated library of 7.5 million books tell a different story.”