In February, the government announced that a new Swedish language model will be developed within the WASP research program. Funding comes from the Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation and the goal is for the language model to be able to generate its own texts.
The Swedish Publishers Association, the Newspaper Publishers Association and Bonnierförlagen are supporting what so far is a research project. The Swedish Writers' Association is also involved in the discussions.
We have seen for several years that there is a huge appetite for using literature to build these kinds of language models. That is why tech companies steal texts - in all other projects like this, copyright has been completely overlooked; they have ignored it. This is the first time people are interested in listening to us, says Anja Gatu, chairwoman of the Swedish Writers' Association.
A chance
She sees a chance for the authors to gain influence over both fundamental principles and financial compensation if the language model becomes a commercial product or is used as the basis for various AI tools.
We would say that you absolutely must not use this language model to write a book in the style of an existing author, for example, or in a way that can replace a human translator.
Poet Olivia Bergdahl, however, is strongly critical. She sees the issue as crucial to how one can make a living as a writer and translator.
The way these machines work is that books are used, but really it becomes more a question of what price tag you put on the language an author has developed, and that is impossible, she says.
Vote on Saturday
Together with fellow authors Nino Mick, Mattias Beijmo and Linus Kollberg, she has written a motion that the Swedish Writers' Union should pause its participation.
The union will vote on the motion at Saturday's union meeting.
The motion is quite modest; it only proposes a break and calls for the formation of a council or group tasked with investigating the issue, says Olivia Bergdahl, who believes that the members must be given a chance to take a stand themselves.
There is also criticism among the authors that they may have to actively opt out if they do not want their work to be used to train the language model.
"We are looking at different solutions. If the parties cannot agree, there is a great risk that it will become a compulsory license where everyone goes along and then receives compensation," says Anja Gatu.
On National Day last year, the Swedish Publishers' Association urged the government to take the initiative for a language model where "the interests of all stakeholders are taken into account."
Researchers from WASP (Wallenberg AI, Autonomous Systems and Software Program) are now training new Swedish language models within the two-year project SE.LLMA.
The idea is to develop language models that “reflect Swedish culture, history, social principles and norms.” They will also develop “the foundations of a legal framework” to compensate authors and rights holders.
The board of the Swedish Journalists' Association has raised the question of whether the association should be included in the project or not, writes the newspaper Journalisten.
