Last updated March 20, 2025

At Hachette Book Group, we are committed to human creativity and the protection of its value. To the extent our stakeholders can utilize artificial intelligence technologies to streamline or otherwise assist in operational processes consistent with this commitment, we are in favor of experimentation and adoption of AI technologies.  

However, we see an important distinction between “operational” and “creative” uses. While drawing lines in these categories can be difficult in an industry as fundamentally creative as our own, we believe that this overall distinction is useful as a means of thinking about how Hachette will look to leverage this technology going forward. In other words, we will look for “operational” uses that help us deliver our publishing services or otherwise fulfill our mission to make it easy for everyone to discover our books and other products. We will stay away from, or at the very least be sure to have consent from relevant rights holders before pursuing, any use of AI technologies that we consider “creative,” meaning that the use harnesses that technology to replace the creative work of a human author, designer, illustrator, or translator. 

Our interests in drawing this distinction are absolutely aligned with our authors, illustrators, and other creators – we value their human creativity, but do not wish to stand in the way of technology that could help them embrace that creativity to its fullest. It is vital to all of us, however, that the work authors submit is original to them, and not generated by AI technology. This is important as a matter of quality, ethics, and responsibility to our craft, our readers, and our industry, but it is also the only means by which the resulting work will continue to be protectable by copyright according to the US Copyright Office.  

Below, please find an update to our Author AI Frequently Asked Questions, first drafted in November of 2023 and now supplemented by annexes that provide examples of approved potential uses of AI technology for authors (Annex 1) and at HBG (Annex 2). Please read them with the understanding that this is an incredibly complex topic involving a rapidly evolving technology that is raising novel legal and ethical issues. We have done our best to address the questions we’ve heard, but if you have any further questions or suggestions after reading these FAQs, please reach out to your editor. We have found that open and forthright dialog is the most productive way to understand the evolution of this technology, as well as the needs and desires of our most important assets – our creators. To facilitate this open dialog between creators and HBG, please understand that these FAQs are intended as an HBG author reference and not meant for distribution. 

UNAUTHORIZED USE OF AUTHOR WORKS FOR LARGE LANGUAGE MODEL TRAINING 

What is HBG’s position on the use of pirated copies of author works to train large language models? 

• No copyrighted work should be used to train a large language model or other AI-enabled product (“AI Tools”) without the authorization of the relevant rights holder(s). We support the litigations brought by authors and organizations like The Authors Guild, against OpenAI, Meta, and others that have created large language models through the unauthorized use of copyrighted works. For more information on these litigations, please talk to your Editor, or consult resources available via The Authors Guild, including these FAQs and this press release about The Authors Guild’s litigation.   
• More generally, HBG is committed to combatting online piracy and successfully litigated against the Internet Archive, preventing it from scanning and posting free copies of our authors’ works on their Open Library site. We use the anti-piracy service Link-Busters to investigate reports of online piracy of our titles. If you discover pirated copies of your works online, please report it here:  https://www.hachettebookgroup.com/terms-and-policies/report-piracy/    

It looks like there are AI-generated summaries of my book available on Amazon or for sale at another retailer. Can you get them taken down? 

• Any summary sold through an online retailer – AI-generated or not – should have a disclaimer that makes it clear to the reader that it is not affiliated with you or the original work. Please contact your Editor and/or LegalNotices@hbgusa.com right away if you see a sales listing for a summary of your book that (a) includes the cover image of your book, (b) copies text or any images directly from your book (this may require ordering the summary to assess), or (c) includes copy in the listing that seems to misrepresent itself as affiliated with you or with HBG. While we cannot get all summaries taken down through cease-and-desist demands, we have had success doing so in these categories of cases. 
• Please know that we are actively engaged with our retail partners in how to best address the prevalence of these types of AI-generated summaries. These works are low quality knock-offs that are flooding retailers to the detriment of consumers, not to mention authors and HBG, and we hope to partner with retailers to find solutions. 

How do I stop people from generating stories in my style, or from writing articles about my books or my life that include false facts from public AI tools? 

• As of the time of this writing, these issues are being litigated in the lawsuits described above and other suits representing the rights of artists and coders. We are also not aware of any accepted technical measures that may be used to effectively block an individual from generating outputs from AI tools trained on your works or inaccurate information scraped from the Internet.  
• Having said that, there may be future legislation in this space, and you still have rights to protect your work under existing law. Depending on the facts and the similarity of the output to the actual expression of your work, you may have a copyright infringement claim against the individual who generated a work in your style. You also still have the ability to prevent individuals or companies from using your name, image, or voice for commercial purposes. Similarly, to the extent a false fact is published about you that harms your reputation, you may have a defamation claim. How all these claims play out in the world of AI is yet to be seen, but there will be legal cases decided that address all of these issues.  

AUTHOR USE OF AI TOOLS

What are HBG’s expectations about how authors may use generative AI in their own work?

• In your agreement with HBG, you represent that your work is original to you, and that you have the ability to grant HBG the exclusive rights covered by the publishing agreement. HBG contracted with you based on your unique talents and experience. Similarly, the US Copyright Office has made clear that a work generated by AI is not protectable under copyright, which is an important protection for the value of published works. 
• We recognize though that there may be some AI-based tools that are helpful to our authors and that you may wish to use them in some manner. If that is the case, please refer to Annex 1 of these FAQs for a list of pre-approved use cases, and discuss your plans with your Editor.  
• Please remember that it remains your obligation to make sure that your work is your own creation and copyrightable. Because of the Copyright Office’s position on the registrability of works even partially generated by AI, please provide your Editor with a summary of the nature of any use of AI-powered tools or technologies in the creation of the text of the work at the time of submission, if not before. This requirement will be a part of our new contractual language on AI, and is an important part of our ability to work and learn together as we enter into this new age of AI-enabled work product. For more information on the use of AI tools in copyrightable works, see the Copyright Office’s webpage on the subject, which includes webinars and written guidance. 

May I feed my book into a public generative AI model?

• You own the text of your copyrighted work and may use it for your own personal uses in any manner you see fit. However, please be mindful that your contractual commitments to HBG continue to apply, including, e.g., the exclusive grant of your rights to HBG as it relates to any use of that text for commercial purposes or in a way that might compete with your HBG publication.  
• Please also be aware that some AI systems share inputted information or content with other AI systems or third parties and/or may be vulnerable to hacking or manipulation, especially public facing AI systems, meaning you may inadvertently share information that you input into the system. You should always review the Terms of Use for any AI system carefully to ensure (i) any information or content you input is not shared with any other AI system or third party and (ii) the system has appropriate security measures in place to prevent unauthorized sharing.  
• Please also keep in mind that at no point should you input HBG confidential information (including sales, strategic plans, etc.), personal data related to HBG employees or contributors, or any other creative work (including, e.g., translations, or work that others may have contributed to a title) into a public generative AI model.  

May I have a copy of my audiobook file to use to train an AI-enabled voice or other model? 

• While you may own the copyright in your text, our Audio group invests a great deal of resources in the creation of an audiobook recording, and generally retains the copyright in the sound recording created. You may not use your audiobook file for use in an AI-enabled product or service without HBG’s permission. Of course, this does not prohibit you from pursuing these types of products using your own voice samples, but we encourage you to discuss potential use cases with your team at HBG, as we may have information or background that may help you in considering your options. 

HBG USE OF AI TOOLS

Does HBG have a policy governing its employees’ use of AI tools for work on its books?

• Yes, HBG has clear policies governing its employees’ use of AI tools.  
  • With respect to large-scale public models that are trained on the data submitted as an input, employees and contractors may not input author, illustrator, or other third-party content as inputs or prompts, nor may employees or contractors input confidential information into these tools. HBG also has strict guidelines for employee use of the output of these tools, limiting use to operational functions.  
  • With respect to contractors or internal HBG uses that incorporate private AI-enabled services or tools, each potential partner, service provider, and tool is reviewed not only from a Legal and Information Security perspective, but also by HBG’s AI Working Group, which ensures that any use of an AI-enabled tool is not only consistent with HBG policy, but also a value-add for our authors and publishing program.  
  • To the extent the AI WG approves an AI-enabled service or tool by HBG employees or contractors, such a tool may only be used for operational publishing uses, consistent with HBG policy and the below guardrails.  

How does HBG use generative AI technologies in its business, or hope to in the future?

• As of the time of this writing, HBG has not authorized the use of any generative AI tools by employees on a company-wide basis. However, HBG is committed to actively exploring how AI-enabled tools can empower our teams to publish your titles more effectively and with a broader reach, and is thus actively engaged in demoing and piloting various potential tools. If we do implement such a tool, it would be (a) a private tool that does not expose author content or information to public use or the training of large-scale public AI models, and (b) only used for operational publishing purposes designed to streamline workflows, improve discoverability, or otherwise help HBG to sell more of your books (see Annex 2 below for a list of example use cases that would fit within this scope).  
• Any potential internal HBG use of private AI tools will be vetted to ensure that your information is protected from public disclosure, and that author content is not ingested into any public-facing model. Our guiding principles in all cases will be to protect the interests of our authors and creative contributors, and to ensure that any use of AI-enabled tools will serve to improve our publishing services. 

What is an “operational” use or purpose?

• As noted above, we view an operational use case as one that improves our ability to provide our publishing services, or otherwise facilitates our mission to make it easy to bring our books and other products to as many readers as possible.  
• A non-exhaustive list of examples of operational uses can be found at Annex 2.  

LICENSING OF COPYRIGHTED MATERIAL FOR TRAINING

Has Hachette licensed my book for training of an AI model? Will it?

• You may have seen communications from The Authors Guild or other reporting about the launch of platforms designed to facilitate the license of copyrighted works to entities wishing to use those works to train generative AI tools and models. These platforms include licenses for different types of rights, ranging from, e.g., for use in training LLMs to fine-tuning a model without training the larger LLM; many also offer optional guardrails around whether the work can be used as an output to create a derivative work. 
• HBG is actively reviewing these platforms and will work with you if you wish to engage in licensing your material for these use cases, but to the extent that you have granted exclusive electronic rights to HBG please make sure you discuss with HBG before making your works available for licensing on these platforms or otherwise entering into any agreement with respect to this type of license.  
• Please reach out to your Editor if you have questions, but also rest assured that HBG will not license your work for training a LLM without your consent, and on terms consistent with your publishing agreement’s provision for electronic rights licensing.  

ANNEX 1

Author AI Use Cases Not Requiring Disclosure

• You may have seen communications from The Authors Guild or other reporting about the launch of platforms designed to facilitate the license of copyrighted works to entities wishing to use those works to train generative AI tools and models. These platforms include licenses for different types of rights, ranging from, e.g., for use in training LLMs to fine-tuning a model without training the larger LLM; many also offer optional guardrails around whether the work can be used as an output to create a derivative work. 
• HBG is actively reviewing these platforms and will work with you if you wish to engage in licensing your material for these use cases, but to the extent that you have granted exclusive electronic rights to HBG please make sure you discuss with HBG before making your works available for licensing on these platforms or otherwise entering into any agreement with respect to this type of license.  
• Please reach out to your Editor if you have questions, but also rest assured that HBG will not license your work for training a LLM without your consent, and on terms consistent with your publishing agreement’s provision for electronic rights licensing.  

AI USE	NOTES
Brainstorming book or character ideas	Always review ideas generated in the same way you would vet human-generated ideas (e.g., for originality, to avoid bias, and to correct errors) and write the copy using your own creative standards. Remember that AI Tools are generating language based on their training inputs and may incorporate existing content, such as character names and features, in outputs.
Brainstorming book titles or subtitles	A review of title ideas must still be undertaken (e.g., review for existing similar titles, accuracy of incorporated facts, or bias). Remember that AI Tools often generate false or misleading facts. AI Tools may also produce copyrighted content or trademarked phrases associated with, for example, a brand included in a prompt.
Researching elements of a book	Always review the research for accuracy or bias and write any resulting text using your own creative standards. Remember that AI Tools often generate false or misleading facts and are generating language based on their training inputs which may incorporate existing content and/or bias in their outputs.
Generating minor/incidental elements to be incorporated into cover or interior art	For example, this includes use of an AI-assisted tool such as Photoshop to edit, refine or otherwise improve the content you have created.
Image treatment/restyle (photos turned to drawings, texturizing effects, colorizing, etc.)	Always check whether this is allowed by the license terms for the image you are manipulating. Please note that photo library/image licenses may include restrictions on the use of AI so read those licenses carefully.
Editing, correcting or otherwise refining text or other content	Microsoft Office 365 or similar tools  Spelling & Grammar Checker: in addition to spelling, the spell checker employs context analysis to suggest corrections based on the surrounding words. The program is understanding and making decisions based on the meaning of the text, rather than just identifying individual words. The Grammar Checker in Microsoft Word uses AI to analyze sentence structure, grammar rules and style to provide suggestions for improving writing.  Editor: The Editor feature in Word uses AI to provide advanced grammar and vocabulary suggestions.   Adobe Creative Cloud Adobe Sensei: Adobe’s AI and machine-learning platform, Sensei, is integrated into many Creative Cloud applications to enhance various creative processes.   Adobe Photoshop:  Content-Aware Fill: This feature uses AI to intelligently fill in selected areas of an image with content that matches the surrounding pixels, making it easier to remove unwanted objects or elements from images. Use of AI to generate content based on text prompts is not permitted.  Adobe Camera Raw Enhance Details: Uses AI-driven algorithms to enhance fine image details, reducing artifacts and improving image quality. Adobe Illustrator: Live Corners and Smart Guides: AI-driven tools that assist in creating precise and balanced designs by suggesting alignment and spacing adjustments.  Adobe Stock: Adobe Stock uses AI to suggest relevant images, videos and assets based on keywords and visual content. Use of AI generated images, videos and assets from Adobe Stock is not permitted. Adobe Lightroom:  Enhance Details: Similar to the Camera Raw feature, this uses AI to improve fine image details and reduce artifacts in photographs.

ANNEX 2

HBG AI Use Examples

Below is a non-exhaustive list of examples of AI uses which may be deployed within the publishing operations of HBG. HBG’s use of AI is subject to strict due diligence processes to ensure (i) the security of the AI systems meets our internal standards; (ii) author content is not used other than for the permitted operational purposes; and (iii) author content is not used for training large language models without the consent of all rights-holders.  

OPERATIONAL AI USE	DESCRIPTION
Office & Administration	Office 365 or similar applications including but not limited to spell checker, grammar checker, MS Word – Editor, PowerPoint Designer, Excel Insights, Excel Ideas, MyAnalytics, Power Automate and AI enhanced Teams and Outlook features.
Identify AI submissions	Identify AI-generated manuscript submissions to help editors sort through a high volume of low-quality entries.
Prevent AI-generated piracy	Stop AI-driven piracy – companies or individuals spoofing Hachette IP using AI and selling these fake books at a lower price on sites like Amazon.
Identify copying	Scan the web and other books to check for plagiarism or infringement of our intellectual property.
Format text for page layout, or images for use across multiple formats	Preparation and formatting of text for page layout, or resizing images for use in multiple formats.
Alt text for ebook accessibility	Automate creation of alt text at ebook conversion.
Error checking	Checking errors such as spellings, syntax, grammar, text to audio, pronunciation.
Comparable titles	Identification of comparable titles within the Hachette catalogue.
Brainstorming	Brainstorm ideas for further internal review.
Sentiment analysis	Analysis of the themes in content to identify recurrent patterns and identify opportunities.
Keyword and metadata creation and optimization	Optimize existing keywords and metadata, create keywords for untagged backlist.
BISAC codes	Create BIC and BISAC codes for new works in Biblio.
Recommendations	Book recommendations, based on criteria such as style, theme, location and more.
Automated targeting	Flag ‘trigger warnings’ for readers, shelve books more accurately and target advertisements.
Marketing operations	Generate short marketing text or social media assets to facilitate broadest possible reach for all titles.
Prepare scripts for audio narrators	Marking scripts, preparing pronunciation guides, or other operational production work