If you aren’t familiar with ChatGBT, you’d better pay attention. According to the website WIRED, “If you’ve ever uploaded photos or art, written a review, ‘liked’ content, answered a question on Reddit, contributed to open source code, or done any number of other activities online, you’ve done free work for tech companies, because downloading all this content from the web is how their AI systems learn about the world.” You’d have to live in a cave far from a cell tower not to have posted a photo or made a comment or statement on the World Wide Web. But don’t think ChatGBT will use your name or acknowledge you in any way. What it steals, it claims to own.

But it’s more insidious than absconding with your brief online opinions. The Atlantic reports that 183,000 books have been pirated reportedly for “training” purposes, and using published material for education is legal—and free. Actually, the books are being used to train AI systems to generate writing similar to that published in the last twenty years. Two of my writer friends are in what Melissa Prichard Schley, who publishes with Bellvue Literary Press, calls an “unholy, unwelcome club.” At least two of her books have been pirated. Author Stephen Kiernan says, “Yup. The thieves got me too. All that research, and they just helped themselves. It is theft.” His books, The Baker’s Secret and The Hummingbird, both published by William Morrow, are in the club.

ChatGBT depends on our content. According to WIRED, “these intelligent technologies that exploit your labor are the very same technologies that are threatening to put you out of a job.” Those in the AI industry heading up the piracy intend to reap the financial benefits of their treachery.

There’s a dim ray of hope. Aljazeera reports that “John Grisham, Jodi Picoult and Game of Thrones novelist George R R Martin are among 17 authors who have sued OpenAI [through Authors Guild], the latest in a wave of legal action by writers concerned that artificial intelligence programs are using their copyrighted works without permission.”

Whether the class action is successful remains to be seen, but there’s a lot at stake. “It is imperative that we stop this theft in its tracks or we will destroy our incredible literary culture, which feeds many other creative industries in the US,” Authors Guild CEO Mary Rasenberger says.

I did not find my name on the list of members of the “unholy club,” maybe because all nine of my books are published with small presses, two of which have shut down leaving some of my books out of print. If I’m honest, my royalties are not enough to support myself, let alone a household. In fact, I probably spend more on marketing books than I make selling them. That doesn’t mean I want my creations to be used without my permission. As a former teacher and professor, I believe in education, but training artificial intelligence to usurp the brilliance of writers who have labored for years to get their ideas onto the page is not educating—it’s robbery.

To check whether your work has been pirated, try clicking this link. If you find you’re in “the unholy club,” contact the Authors Guild.