- David Baldacci says suing OpenAI over AI training on his books is “the hill I’m going to die on”
- He argues that using copyrighted novels to train AI without permission threatens the future of creative work
- The lawsuit could reshape how AI companies collect data and how creators are compensated
Bestselling author David Baldacci’s thrillers have spent years atop the literary charts, but he is defining his life in a real fight over how AI models train on copyrighted material. He made his stance clear in a 60 Minutes Australia interview about his legal war against OpenAI and other AI companies over copyright infringement.
“In your professional life, in your personal life, in your life raising your kids, you have to pick your battles,” Baldacci said. “You have to pick the line you won’t cross. You have to pick the hill you’re going to die on. This is the hill I’m going to die on.”
Baldacci sees this as about defending the soul of creative work in the digital age.
The issue came home to him, he said, when Baldacci’s fight began, he explained, when his son showed him how easily an AI chatbot could generate a plot in his style. He felt viscerally shocked.
“It really was like somebody had backed up a truck to my vault and stolen everything I’d ever created and then driven off with it in the middle of the night,” he said. “I felt violated because this had been my life’s work and then all of a sudden it was there for anyone to sort of take and use.
The lawsuit that Baldacci and a coalition of prominent authors, represented by the Authors Guild, filed against OpenAI and other AI firms alleges that these companies copied copyrighted novels and other works without permission to train large language models like ChatGPT.
Plaintiffs claim that models trained on these copyrighted texts now generate outputs that can mimic the works of living authors in ways that undercut the value of their original creations.
Baldacci’s anger at the situation is rooted in the belief that if AI companies can use copyrighted materials without licensing or compensation, the very concept of copyright protection for creators is at risk.
“I think what’s really been stolen from me is who I am. People ask me why do you write, and I tell them I write because I can’t not write. It’s what I identify as,” Baldacci said. “It’s not a job, it’s not a passion, it’s not a hobby, it’s really why I wake up every day. So what they’ve stolen from me is the whole purpose of my life as a creative person.”
Baldacci and other authors argue that AI systems trained on copyrighted content without permission could depress book sales, flood the market with derivative works, and diminish the incentives for writers and other creators to produce original content.
If a chatbot can imitate the style and structure of a novel with little effort from a user, there is concern that audiences might choose cheaper or “free” AI-generated alternatives over books that took years to craft. That scenario, critics warn, could erode the financial viability of writing as a profession at a time when many authors already struggle with modest incomes.
Opponents of the authors’ position, including some in the tech community and AI industry, contend that training on broad swaths of text found online qualifies as fair use under current copyright law. Some AI advocates have suggested that restricting access to copyrighted material would hinder innovation and slow progress in a field they view as strategically important for national competitiveness.
Battle for literary souls
Musicians, journalists, visual artists and others have filed similar lawsuits or spoken out about how AI’s use of copyrighted material affects their livelihoods. The fight over AI and copyright has become a surrogate battleground for larger questions about how society values creativity in the age of automation.
Baldacci’s fight has also taken him beyond the courtroom and into the halls of Congress. He has testified before lawmakers and advocated for legislative action to clarify copyright protections in the era of AI. At a Senate Judiciary Subcommittee hearing, he appealed to legislators to update laws to give creators better tools to protect their work and to ensure transparency in AI training datasets.
Baldacci and supporters suggested that AI companies should be required to disclose when they use copyrighted works in training and to negotiate licenses where appropriate. Such changes, they argue, could provide a fairer balance between innovation and the rights of creators.
“People were telling me they were so proud of me to go down there and speak to my heart about these issues and to talk and to sort of confront what’s going on and to stand up for creative people across the world,” Baldacci said. “It was a small little magical moment of feeling really good about doing something.”
The lawsuit and the public discussion around it are bringing attention to the invisible labor that goes into producing AI outputs. If the legal landscape shifts in favor of Baldacci and other authors, it could reshape how AI systems are trained, potentially leading to new norms for licensing data and compensating creators.
That could mean changes in how AI chatbots answer questions about fiction or how they generate content that resembles existing works. Users may see more disclaimers about sources or limitations on derivative outputs.
The outcome of Baldacci’s battle may help define the rules of engagement between human creativity and AI. Whether Baldacci ultimately succeeds, he is firm that his stance with regard to protecting creators and their rights won’t change.
“Stories drive me. I mean, other than being a father and a husband, those three roles—a father, a husband, and a writer, that’s me,” Baldacci said. If you take away one leg of that stool, the stool falls over.”
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