Ex-Waitrose boss takes on Mark Zuckerberg after AI 'steals his books' (2025)

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The former boss of Waitrose is offering to defend British authors whose works have been ‘plagiarised’ by Mark Zuckerberg’s AI system after his own books were ‘stolen’.

Lord Mark Price, 64, wrote to the Facebook boss threatening legal action after discovering four of his books may have been used, without permission, to train Meta AI.

In a letter sent to Mr Zuckerberg, Lord Price said his actions ‘trample’ on the principle of intellectual property and ‘chill future innovation’.

Praising the Daily Mail’s campaign battling to safeguard Britain’s creative industries from the threat of AI by protecting their copyright, the Conservative Peer said: ‘What is happening is egregious. I have written to Mr Zuckerberg, and I have asked him what he is doing. I have told him that I am now pursuing legal action.

‘If other British authors get in touch with me, I will take them on.’

In his complaint, written on official House of Lords headed paper, he told Mr Zuckerberg: ‘The respect and protection of intellectual property rights is a fundamental principle which provides companies and individuals with the confidence to do business and innovate, which in turn benefits everyone in our societies.

'Your actions not only trample on that principle but also chill future innovation and effort.’

It has been claimed that a shadowy pirate website, based in Russia, gathers the material, which is then used by Meta.

The firm takes the books and artworks and inputs them into their information storage system to make their own computer-generated equivalents seem genuine.

Last December, the Labour Government proposed to give AI firms a copyright exemption meaning they would not have to pay or accredit the original author or creator, unless creators actively opt out of having their work exploited.

Lord Price was managing director of Waitrose for a decade from 2007. In his letter copied to Sir Keir Starmer, the Business Secretary Jonathan Reynolds, and Lord Mandelson, the UK’s ambassador to Washington, he demanded an explanation from Mr Zuckerberg.

He wrote: ‘I am currently taking legal advice as to further action, including an injunction, and liaising with others who are unfortunately in the same position and may want to join that action.

‘Please explain why you think it is acceptable to ignore intellectual property rights and take my work, and that of thousands of other British authors, for Meta’s commercial benefit.’

A Meta spokesman said: ‘We respect third-party intellectual property rights and believe our use of information to train AI models is consistent with existing law.’

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