HarperCollins has become the first Big Five publisher to strike a licensing deal to provide access to select nonfiction books for AI training purposes. And so far, authors and agents appear to be approaching the deal with caution and skepticism—if also with a measure of hope. In a statement, Harper representatives confirmed only that the agreement with an undisclosed company will “allow limited use of select nonfiction backlist titles” for use in training AI models “to improve model quality and performance.”
