The Authors Guild has introduced several new AI-related clauses and updated its suite of model clauses governing artificial intelligence uses of authors’ works, offering a comprehensive framework that addresses:

• Training
• Subsidiary rights uses (New)
• AI translations and audiobook narrations
• Author’s Use of AI (New)
• Prohibitions against the publisher’s editing with AI or uploading manuscripts into AI platforms that train on the works 

The Guild has consolidated all its AI-related clauses on a dedicated page on its website, bringing together previously released clauses and introducing new provisions addressing emerging uses of AI. The clauses are provided as a menu to pick and choose from, and can be added collectively as a single section to publishing agreements under negotiation, or used in an amendment to existing agreements 

“There is a great need for clarity in the industry around what rights are implicated by the different types of AI uses, how these rights should be framed in contracts, and what AI uses authors and publishers can make,” said CEO Mary Rasenberger. “Our clauses are designed to provide a necessary framework to existing and emergent questions around AI uses, and ensure the issues are addressed head-on in contracts, with expectations clearly understood by all parties.”

The Guild’s baseline model clause makes it clear that publishers acquire no rights to reproduce, distribute, or create derivative works from an author’s book for AI training or AI outputs unless those rights are expressly granted. A narrow carveout allows publishers to use internal AI tools for routine marketing, advertising, and searchability functions. Other uses, such as for training, AI-enhanced eBooks, and other emerging AI uses of books, can be added by mutual agreement. These kinds of uses could bring in much-needed additional income for authors and publishers, particularly as AI books’ flooding of the marketplace inevitably lowers the amount any particular book can earn from traditional sales and licensing markets. 

For authors who wish to license specific AI uses, the Guild has introduced a detailed subsidiary rights framework that separates the following into distinct licensable rights, together with suggested ideal splits:

• AI training
• Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG)
• AI book summaries
• “Chat with a book” applications
• Other uses

In response to recent concerns around authors manuscripts being uploaded into consumer-facing chatbots, the update also includes:

• A clause that requires publishers to get author approval for any such uses, and where permission is granted, to ensure that manuscripts are not used by third-party AI companies for training
• A new clause that prohibits publishers from using AI to substantively edit a manuscript, with an exception for basic spelling and grammar-checking applications.

Another clause provides that the author must disclose if there is any AI-generated text in the manuscript and may not use more than a de minimus amount – so it is clear to the author that “original to the author” means the author (and not AI) wrote the text. Conversely, the author cannot be required to use AI in writing the manuscript. 

The updated page further consolidates the Guild’s previously released model clauses aroundusing AI to narrate audiobooks or translate works into other languages without the author’s prior written consent.  

The complete set of updated model clauses is available on the Authors Guild website here.