Why aren't more people outraged at Meta's theft of millions of books to train its AI? Simple. We teach people not to value art.

Image from literary hub's article about Meta's data theft.

AI are trained on stolen material, it's a tale as old as... itself. Recently, Meta have been found to have stolen millions of books to train its late to the party AI. Chances are, your favourite author had their book stolen (I guess to balance things out, your least favourite author did too). Why is theft on this scale not causing more outrage?

We’ve been trained not to care… we’ve spent years, decades even, telling students and the world that art isn’t as valuable as other areas. We do it everyday in schools where arts are shuffled to the side to make way for “real subjects”. I realise I say this as someone who teaches some of those real subjects. My teaching methods are biology and chemistry, and I’ve been teaching science and maths at a high school since the dark days of 2020.

Every writer or creative has been asked a version of the same question “have you sold anything?”. Any time I mention that I write, I am asked if I have a deal, if I have sold books, or if they’d have heard of anything I’ve published. It’s never, “oh, you’ve spent nearly a decade of your life working on something you are passionate about and which enriches your being. That’s brilliant, I’m so glad you found that. So many people never discover their thing.”

This is a learned behaviour, people aren't naturally dismissive of creativity, they are taught that it is not a monetisable venture and that they should focus on Language, Maths and Science, so one day they can get a real job and pay bills (perhaps even support the arts…).

When schooling systems are ranked around the world—because who doesn’t love a ranking—we look at STEM outcomes, maths results, and reading/writing ability. Why on earth would a school system focus on art, or creativity, or music, or pottery? Is that all that matters? Especially in a world where “an AI could do that instantly” why are we only valuing skills which made for quality labourers around the industrial revolution.

I started teaching during 2020, having graduated in 2019 with a Master of Teaching and spending a little time working as a teacher’s aide in a school for students with autism. I still remember my first ever staff meeting. From the back of the room, one of the staff members asked “will this thing in China effect our international students coming back for the new school year?”. The department response was business as usual at that point as very few—and none with the power to do much—saw the reality of what was coming for us… yes, Tiger King. Also, Covid, that was a whole thing too.

My first year of teaching wasn’t what I had prepared for, or anything I had even suspected could happen. I ended up working from home before we made it through the first term of class. I was teaching junior maths and science, and it quickly became apparent, I was the most important person in the world (or at least, one of them, along with my fellow teachers of “real” subjects”).

The desperate shuffle to online learning became a practice in triage and it was decided quickly, we needed kids to be working on the important stuff consistently, with little real thought for “electives”. The occasional art task or recipe could be sent home, but the kids would be fine without such trivialities.

This isn’t a knock against my school. I actually think we did a great job in many aspects of what was a dumpster fire amidst the longest lockdowns anywhere in the world. This is a systemic issue and a societal issue. I also believe we do a good job of celebrating the arts, despite our demographic and the lack of emphasis the department put on creativity.

As part of my role at my school I am privileged to assist students with their course selections as they progress from year 9 to 10, 10 to 11, and 11 into 12. It’s great seeing students I have taught in the past selecting the subjects which will guide their future, or meeting new students and learning about their dreams and aspirations. It’s also another stark reminder that the arts can get in a bin and be hit with a stick, as far as many parents are concerned. Who can blame them? Being a doctor or engineer (which 80% of the students I spoke with have been told is their dream) sounds good, steady pay check, hopefully not being replaced by AI, and respected in the community—unless that community is the US, present day, where all doctors are charlatans and working as shills to ruin the world for their own benefit.

This ranticle has a point, I promise.

We are currently witnessing mass theft, on a level never seen before of this type. It is the theft of art, of literature, of IP, and of as far as I can tell, anything which can be used to train an AIs to print money for the mega corporations building them. We’ve seen the lack of regard Meta has shown for its mass theft of pirated material. They knew it was illegal, but just factored it in as a price of business. The sum of many lifetime’s of work were stolen and the only consideration was “what will the legal costs be?”.

You see this same callousness when you see comment sections online talking about piracy of media, “Why should I pay for it?” “People deserve art for free.” “If this person can no longer produce art, someone else will be able to.” The idea that a piece of art someone has produced has worth seems anathema to these people.

I’m not arguing that internet pirates downloading eBooks for the pirate bay one at a time are equivalent to the corporations actively trying to ruin the world for their profit margins… but I feel the passivity toward the issue, the lack of care shown by people not affected, and the fact these people feel empowered to behave as they do, share a common route. The idea that art and creativity aren’t valuable.

I don’t know if teaching kids that art is valuable, and viable will solve these issues.

I think the economy as it exists today will continue to devalue the non-commodifiable. I think big businesses will continue with a model of “if we can afford theft, then it is a cost of business”.

But I also think, maybe we should stop trying to crush creativity in students. Maybe we should tell the kids in those course selection meetings that pursuing a career in the arts has value beyond consistent pay checks. We should be encouraging students to study art whether as a sole focus, or as part of a well-balanced education.

What we cannot do though, is expect to live in a vibrant world of creativity, if we continue to reinforce the message that art, and those who produce it, are not valuable.