Use of Irish writers’ work for AI training has ‘profound implications’ – union

A group of Irish writers has called on the government to protect their work from AI technologies.

The government said it is working to implement an EU law on AI that is due to come into force later this year, while Meta said its AI model training is “consistent with existing law”.

The protest, by the Irish Writers Union (IWU), submitted a petition with over 1,500 signatures to the Department of Enterprise in Dublin city on Thursday.

The demonstration was held in response to reports from The Atlantic, which claimed that Meta has used millions of books and research papers to train its AI generator Llama.

“The allegations have profound implications for Irish authors,” the IWU said.

The union has claimed that dozens of its members have had their work used for AI training without their permission.

It is encouraging writers to call for the cessation of use of their work for AI training, negotiate terms for continued use of their work, and request compensation for past unauthorised use of their work.

The union’s petition also called on the Irish government to “play its part” in protecting its citizens from copyright infringement.

“We call upon you to communicate with Meta and insist that the rights, interests and livelihoods of authors are adequately protected,” said the petition to junior minister Niamh Smyth, who has responsibility for AI and digital transformation.

“Specifically, we, the undersigned, call on you as minister responsible for protecting EU copyright law from being violated in AI training to summon senior executives of Meta to provide a detailed response to the allegations that they have engaged in wholesale copyright infringement and to provide unequivocal assurances that they will respect the copyright of authors, not engage in unlawful conduct, and will pay authors for all historic infringements.”

Labour TD and media spokesman Rob O’Donoghue echoed the union’s calls for the Government to take “urgent action to defend Irish writers”.

“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.

“The creative sector faces enough challenges without billion-dollar corporations helping themselves to books, stories and ideas.”

A spokeswoman 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.”

Ms Smyth said EU and Irish policies and legislation are adapting to address challenges linked to the rapid advancement of AI.

She said Irish authorities were working to implement the EU’s Artificial Intelligence Act relating to general-purpose AI models, from August 2.

“From that date, providers of general-purpose AI models available in the EU must make available on request to the European Commission’s AI Office and national competent authorities technical documentation on the model, including its training,” Ms Smyth said.

“They must also put in place a policy to comply with union law on copyright and related rights, and make publicly available a detailed summary of the content used for training the model.

“The European Commission’s AI Office is facilitating the drawing up of a code of practice for providers of general-purpose models, with the participation of civil society organisations, academia, independent experts and industry.”

She the code of practice, due to be completed in May, will set out commitments to ensure AI model providers fulfil their obligations.

“This department is working across government to establish effective implementation and enforcement structures for the EU AI Act,” she added.

“On 4 March 2025, government approved the designation of an initial list of eight public bodies as competent authorities responsible for implementing and enforcing the Act within their respective sectors.

“Additional authorities and a lead regulator, who will co-ordinate enforcement of the Act, will be designated by a future government decision to ensure comprehensive implementation of the Act.

“My officials are closely monitoring legal, policy and technical developments in the areas of both copyright and AI.

“We are actively involved in EU and international discussions to balance technological innovation with the protection of creators’ rights, and we will continue to engage with industry representatives, and artists on these matters.”