- Singapore’s IMDA develops Southeast Asia-focused large language model.
- Local writers criticize survey for short timeframe and lack of clarity on compensation.
- IMDA extends survey deadline and keeps it online indefinitely in response to concerns.
The Infocomm Media Development Authority (IMDA) of Singapore is developing a Southeast Asia-focused large language model.
Still, the city-state’s literary community has raised concerns about the potential use of copyrighted work in training the model without consent.
The Straits Times reported that the IMDA has been collaborating with local literary nonprofit firm Sing Lit Station to gather input through a survey, but writers have criticized the research for its short timeframe and lack of clarity regarding compensation.
Echoes of the New York Times lawsuit
Ng Kah Gay, editor at independent publisher Ethos Books, warned that without proper consideration and safeguards, AI software could assimilate copyrighted material, negatively impacting the livelihood of authors and publishers.
These concerns resemble those of the New York Times, which recently filed a lawsuit against ChatGPT maker OpenAI and Microsoft for alleged copyright infringement, claiming that millions of its articles were used to train AI models that compete with the major publisher.
OpenAI has countersued, accusing the New York Times of hacking into its systems to obtain evidence.
IMDA’s vision for a Southeast Asia-focused LLM
The IMDA’s Southeast Asia-focused LLM, known as The National Multimodal LLM Program, aims to understand Singapore’s unique language traits and multilingual context.
Along with Singapore’s Sea-lion model, the IMDA stated that these efforts seek to address the limitations of AI in understanding regional context and languages.
In response to the concerns raised by the literary community, the IMDA has extended the survey deadline from April 7 to April 15 and will keep it online indefinitely.
To read the original article: https://www.techinasia.com/copyright-worries-arise-imdas-seafocused-ai-model
