You might have read on the news that large language models are patrolling the internet to get the most data possible for their AI chatbots or other artificial intelligence endeavours. There are many use cases; some only get data from image-sharing sites for the AI service to make works of art or logos quickly. Others, like Microsoft’s new Big chat system, will answer questions on virtually any topic. Scribd is an online subscription service that gives people access to millions of articles, audiobooks, ebooks, magazines and more. They have just updated their terms of service, trying to control AI services from scraping their content.
“Our library is home to hundreds of millions of amazing, human-authored pieces of content, making it one of the most valuable and sought-after data resources,” said Trip Adler, co-founder and CEO of Scribd. “Our library’s quality sets us apart, and to safeguard its content, we have outlined use cases in our Terms of Service that control how and when other companies can use our data.”
The company will continue to prioritize the interests of publishers participating in its subscription service, its base of creators who upload their content to the platform, and the entire Scribd community. This is in addition to some existing measures, such as BookID and Scribd’s automated approach to protecting copyrighted materials.
Companies interested in learning more about Scribd’s data or changes to its terms of service, which apply to Scribd’s user-generated, premium subscription and SlideShare libraries, can contact datainquiries@scribd.com for more information.
Michael Kozlowski is the editor-in-chief at Good e-Reader and has written about audiobooks and e-readers for the past fifteen years. Newspapers and websites such as the CBC, CNET, Engadget, Huffington Post and the New York Times have picked up his articles. He Lives in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.