Thousands of authors are seeking compensation from tech companies for the use of their copyrighted work in artificial intelligence learning tools, CNN reports. This is also the latest intellectual property criticism aimed at AI development.

The list of more than 8,000 authors includes some of the world’s best-known writers, including Margaret Atwood, Dan Brown, Michael Chabon, Jonathan Franzen, James Patterson, Jodi Picoult and Philip Pullman, among others.

In an open letter signed by them and published by the Authors Guild, the writers accuse AI companies of unfairly profiting from their work.

“Millions of copyrighted books, articles, essays, and poetry provide the ‘food’ for AI systems, endless meals for which there has been no bill. You’re spending billions of dollars to develop AI technology. It is only fair that you compensate us for using our writings, without which AI would be banal and extremely limited”, the letter said.

The letter was sent to the CEOs of ChatGPT creator OpenAI, Google, Stability AI, IBM and Microsoft. Meta, Microsoft and Stability AI declined to comment.