The academic publisher Wiley has called for “ethical and legal data-sourcing practices within the AI industry”, in a statement issued against the illegal scraping of copyrighted content for the development of AI.
The publisher also highlighted its commitment to “ensuring that authors’ works are respected and properly licensed”.
The statement set out three key principles for AI developers, including that every company should “obtain authorisation before using Wiley content”. Without a licence, there is “no implied permission” to use Wiley’s copyrighted content, according to the document, which also highlighted the need for “attribution and data provenance”.
The publisher has entered into licensing agreements with AI developers in the past, without offering an “opt-out” option for authors. The company’s focus has been on speed, and its goal is to “shape” AI, rather than “being shaped” by the rapidly evolving digital landscape.
The publisher said: “There have been numerous well-publicised agreements between AI developers and STM and trade publishers, including our own successful licensing agreements with AI developers who share our commitment to ethical content use. These clearly demonstrate that an AI licensing market exists and is functioning effectively.
“This licensing market also creates pathways to ground AI in authoritative content. This active collaboration with the AI community includes building expectations and standards into agreements for transparency, citation, attribution, and data provenance, to foster user trust in AI systems.”
Wiley’s publicly available set of AI guidelines and FAQs were also released in March, guiding authors on how to effectively use these emerging technologies in their work.
The statement added: “Through partnerships with authors, publishing partners, researchers and ethical AI developers, we can create a sustainable ecosystem that values both technological advancement and the uniquely human contributions of authors and researchers.”
