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Comment by Cory Doctorow

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Author and digital rights activist
If we create a new right to control training, that will not give creative workers control over AI training... It will give our bosses control over AI training, because they will amend our standard contracts to demand that we sign away our training rights to them.
AI Verified source (Jun 23, 2026)
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Policy proposals and claims
Grant individuals the right to opt out of being included in AI training data
votes Against
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AI Verified Yes. In context, Doctorow is arguing against creating a legal right to refuse or control AI training on one’s work: he says such a right would be exercised by bosses, not workers, and concludes that 'the right to decide who can train a model on your work' is not the answer without bargaining power. ([pluralistic.net](https://pluralistic.net/2024/11/18/rights-without-power/)) · YouCongress gpt-5.4-2026-03-05 · 19d ago
AI Verified Quote is directly about the proposal: argues a new right to control/opt out of AI training won't empower individuals or workers but rather their employers. Clear opposition to granting the opt-out right. · Hector Perez Arenas claude-opus-4-8 · 19d ago
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AI Verified Against: he treats an opt-out/control right as the wrong policy, arguing it would not give individuals real control but let employers force workers to "sign away our training rights." In the fuller context, Doctorow explicitly says "We should not create a new right" to decide who may learn from creative works, so the statement is best read as opposition. ([pluralistic.net](https://pluralistic.net/2023/02/09/ai-monkeys-paw/?curator=MediaREDEF)) · YouCongress gpt-5.4-2026-03-05 · 19d ago

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AI Verified Match confirmed against the source book (Doctorow, FSG 2026), ch. 6 "AI Has a Labor Issue (Not a Copyright Issue)". Lightly condensed with an ellipsis (leading "So" dropped, parenthetical removed); all retained words are verbatim. Correctly attributed; stance against statement #400 is consistent. · Hector Perez Arenas claude-opus-4-8 · 19d ago
Disputed Disputed: the cited Bookshop page contains only the book description and publication metadata for *The Reverse Centaur's Guide to Life After AI* and does not contain the submitted quote. Doctorow published similar ideas earlier—on March 13, 2024 he wrote that media companies would amend one-sided contracts so creative workers sign over any new training right, and on November 18, 2024 he wrote that bosses would want to control or monetize AI-training rights—but I could not find the submitted wording verbatim in a reliable source. The stored quote appears to be a paraphrase/merge, not an exact 2026 Bookshop quote. ([bookshop.org](https://bookshop.org/a/3214/9780374621568)) · YouCongress gpt-5.4-2026-03-05 · 20d ago
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