"We sincerely hope that this is now done consistently," says poet Olivia Bergdahl.
The motion, which dealt with whether texts from members of the Swedish Writers' Association should be included in the state's AI language model, received some support during the annual general meeting.
Want to see a break
They called for a pause in the project and to appoint a group to investigate the issue - something that will now be done.
"We realized that it was a crucial decision that was on the table. There is a great deal of ignorance among writers about these issues, and if there is not an open discussion about what the technology can mean, we are in a difficult position. This discussion should have taken place a year ago, before the project started," says Olivia Bergdahl.
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 produce its own texts.
Decision not confirmed
The Swedish Publishers Association, Newspaper Publishers and Bonnierförlagen support what is so far a research project. The Swedish Writers' Association believes that it is better to participate in the project - than to let foreign tech companies steal the authors' texts.
But the decision to participate in the project has not been firmly anchored with the majority of members, says Olivia Bergdahl, who wrote the motion together with fellow authors Nino Mick, Mattias Beijmo and Linus Kollberg.
"We are at such a strange historical moment, where a professional group is strongly affected by technology that is very complex. With that, a debate is needed where many different perspectives are heard," says Olivia Bergdahl.
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 tabled the question of whether the association should be included in the project or not, writes the newspaper Journalisten.
