AI Policy

Anthropic (makers of Claude bot) illegally pirated more than 7 million books to train it’s software on, being fined 1.5 billion dollars for doing so. In addition, through ‘project panama‘ it also bought millions of physical books which were scanned and then destroyed – simply to feed to their AI generating program. And that’s just one of the big AI tech companies!

Generative AI uses what’s known as “machine learning” – much like how humans go to school to learn, the machines need to be given information for them to learn how to do the tasks people ask them to do.

The problem is that they need a lot of information to be able to do that job – and how do they get it? The companies just take it. In the race to have the best programs to offer people, these tech companies are collecting vast amounts of data to give to their machines – without asking.

Even though there have been legal battles and even fines, it’s a mere drop in the ocean compared to the amount of money these companies can make – so they don’t care. It’s also something that our laws weren’t really created to consider, so while these tech companies may not technically be doing anything illegal – ETHICALLY it’s theft.

AI generated music? – that was trained by feeding it songs that people made.
AI generated art? – that was trained by feeding it artwork human artists made.
AI generated text – that was trained by feeding it human authored books.

In most cases without permission/consent of the original artists. In some cases, the tech companies are “scraping” the internet – essentially breaking into people’s websites to steal content from them, with no real way to stop them.

In a horrifying twist – because much of the content around these days has now been made with AI (which can contain errors), and the move to ebooks meaning less printed books are out there – the tech companies are in need of old unpolluted sources of data – physical books – which they buy, scan and destroy.


Book scanning & destruction articles:
https://arstechnica.com/ai/2025/06/anthropic-destroyed-millions-of-print-books-to-build-its-ai-models/
https://www.ibtimes.co.uk/anthropic-secret-book-scanning-operation-1811155
https://www.techspot.com/news/113277-ai-firms-quietly-buying-destroying-millions-printed-books.html

Copyright theft articles:
https://goodlawproject.org/ai-giants-are-stealing-our-creative-work/
https://globalvoices.org/2026/04/09/australian-creatives-push-back-against-ai-theft/

There are several environmental factors with generative AI

• The computing power needed to run the programs that create AI images is VERY high.
• Computing generates heat, which is cooled using water.
• Datacentres need to be built to house the computers to run generative AI – leading to large areas of land being deforested to make room for these datacentres.
• Computing components need manufacturing – which means more mining.

“The global infrastructure powering AI, could consume 945 terawatt-hours of electricity annually by 2030 – nearly triple the combined annual electricity use of Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Nigeria, countries collectively home to more than 650 million people.
However, this is just the tip of the iceberg. On top of the carbon footprint, every unit of electricity used by data centres also carries a “water footprint” for cooling and energy production, and a “land footprint” associated with power generation and supply chains.”
— United Nations (http://news.un.org/en/story/2026/06/1167658)

“The production of AI-specific chips is especially water-intensive and is often located in ecologically vulnerable areas. E-Waste is another problem the report addresses: Large quantities of up to 5 million tonnes of additional electronic waste will be generated by the expansion of data centres and AI capacities until 2030.”
— Greenpeace (www.greenpeace.org.au/greenpeace-reports/report-environmental-impacts-of-artificial-intelligence)

“Large data centers can consume up to 5 million gallons per day, equivalent to the water use of a town populated by 10,000 to 50,000 people.”
— Environmental & Energy Study Institute (https://www.eesi.org/articles/view/data-centers-and-water-consumption)

The standard argument is a “well, I wouldn’t have paid an artist to make my flyer anyway, so why does it matter?”

And while that’s true that you might not have, there are lots of things people use AI for that they would have paid someone for in the past, so in general AI is pushing people from jobs.

Websites with a help chat? – those are almost exclusively AI now, whereas before a human was employed to answer those, and the humans did it better!

Book covers, movie posters, advertising flyers – those used to be done by graphic artists whose income relied on being paid for their art – now people can make one for free with AI.

Authors who take 6 months to a year to write a book and pay for their cover art are now competing with “authors” who can produce 4 AI-written books PER DAY.

I honestly don’t know what else to call this… but the lengths these companies are going to to take information without user’s permission is frightening.

It’s come to the point where it’s essentially like having a stranger just walk into your house, photograph everything – your letters, your diary – EVERYTHING, sell those photos to become very rich, and you can do nothing but watch it happen.

And while you may argue that it’s only to train AI, so why does it matter – it matters a lot to a lot of people, and it’s a lack of choice that’s the issue.

There’s a saying – “If you’re not paying, you are the product.”

Data is HUGELY profitable, and artist/author/musician’s content is being taken, against their will, for the profit of the companies taking it – how is that fair?


Anthropic, as mentioned earlier, was known to have illegally pirated 7 billion books and destroyed millions of print books to train its Claude software.

Meta (owner of facebook and instagram), uses every photo and message (yes even private messages) you post on their platforms to feed to their AI programs. In addition, an update to their TOS which comes into effect in Nov, means that they will not only take the information users post on those platforms, it will also take all information it can grab from any websites that creators/business accounts link to.

— What does that mean? It means that if an author has a facebook page, and links to their website – Meta can go to their website and steal any book images and text on that website. If the author has excerpts of their book – those can be taken too. There’s no way to opt out, other than deleting your facebook/instagram account.

It means that I’ve had to install extra firewalls and blockers to prevent Meta from stealing the content on this website.

(Meta also has a host of privacy issues, including the Cambridge Analytica scandal and conducting psychological experiments on unknowing users)

Google uses any information in your private emails to train their Gemini AI!
https://www.howtogeek.com/gmail-might-be-harvesting-your-emails-to-train-aiheres-how-to-opt-out/