The US Copyright Office is seeking public input on copyright law and policy issues raised by generative AI and is assessing whether federal legislative or US government regulation are warranted.
Generative AI (genAI) technology has been documented relying on copyrighted works used to train up underlying language models. The Copyright Office will be looking into the appropriate levels of transparency and disclosure involving the use of copyrighted works, the legal status of AI-generated outputs, and the appropriate treatment of AI-generated outputs that mimic personal attributes of human artists.
In March, the Copyright Office launched an AI initiative to look into issues around copyright infringement by genAI and other AI technology. So far this year, the agency has held four public sessions and two webinars on the use of copyrighted material for AI.
The agency has already gathered feedback and questions, and is now looking for more public input “from the broadest audience to date in the initiative.” It plans to use the information to advise Congress; inform the agency’s own regulatory work; and offer information and resources to the public, courts, and other government entities considering the issue of copyright infringement.
“We launched this initiative at the beginning of the year to focus on the increasingly complex issues raised by generative AI,” said Shira Perlmutter, register of copyrights and director of the US Copyright Office. “We look forward to continuing to examine these issues of vital importance to the evolution of technology and the future of human creativity.”
Nitish Mittal, a partner in the technology practice of research firm Everest Group, said the issue of AI copyright infringement has been at the heart of the media and entertainment industry. In recent months, the Writers Guild of America, Sarah Silverman, Christopher Golden, and Richard Kadrey have all come out against ChatGPT creator OpenAI and Meta over claims of copyright infringement, Mettal said. The Writers Guild is pushing to ban the use of AI-generated content.
The primary issue is it’s not clear who owns the content generated by AI models.
“The technology providers…are aiming to act as platforms for these AI models, but not taking a stance on who has legal rights and legitimate ownership of the content these systems churn out,” said Mittal, who leads Everest’s digital transformation and IT services group in Europe.
The notice of inquiry is an important, but not surprising, move, he said, noting there are four primary risks in AI (and genAI) that need special attention:
Data security and privacy
Explainability
Ownership and responsibility
Bias and ethics
The Copyright Office wants feedback from content producers (such as writers and studios), legal entities (regulators, lawyers, and courts), and technology providers (big tech companies and foundational model providers). That feedback is needed to hammer…
2023-08-31 14:24:02
Original from www.computerworld.com rnrn