D2D survey—Do you want to allow AI LLMs to train from your manuscripts?

Draft2Digital recently sent me an email with a link to a survey that's open until Tuesday, September 3, 2024. The survey is intended for authors who have published through Smashwords or Draft2Digital, and it asks about what their opinion is regarding letting AI acquire licensing rights to train their large language models (LLMs) using the authors' published material, and what the authors believe would be fair compensation were they to opt in to allowing their works to be licensed for LLM training purposes.

I was sent that email because I published a fantasy novella and a memoir a long time ago. I still get a few cents' worth of royalties every month in passive income, but I don't actively promote my books anymore because I decided many years ago that I'd rather focus on my editing business. However, those books are still up there on Amazon and other platforms like Smashwords, so Draft2Digital sent me the survey too.

I applaud the effort being made to fairly compensate authors for the right to use their works for LLM training purposes, but I'm not interested in allowing any LLM in using my work in any way, shape, or form. You as an author may have a different opinion, so I strongly urge you to fill out the survey and let Draft2Digital know what you think about letting them license your work for LLM training, or if you'd rather opt out of that altogether.

The form can be found here.