Legal Battles Brew Over AI Tools’ Use of Original Works: Copyright Infringement or Fair Use?

The battle over copyright infringement in the age of artificial intelligence is heating up as recent lawsuits challenge the use of original works by AI tools. In a class action lawsuit filed last September, professional writers are taking on tech giants like OpenAI, Google, and Facebook, claiming that their AI programs are stealing jobs from human creators and threatening the future of art and literature.

The plaintiffs in the Authors Guild v. OpenAI case argue that generative AI tools like ChatGPT are creating “derivative works” of their original, copyrighted material. They claim that these AI programs are able to summarize books, churn out new stories, and flood the market with machine-written texts based on their work. This, they argue, is a form of large-scale theft that infringes on their copyrights and threatens their livelihoods.

On the other side of the debate, generative AI makers contend that their tools are highly creative and transformative in nature. They argue that by analyzing millions of datapoints from human works, their AI programs are able to produce wholly new media that do not replicate any given creator’s expressive choices. They claim that limiting the use of copyrighted materials by AI would stifle creativity and harm the development of new ideas.

However, a recent Supreme Court case, Andy Warhol Foundation v. Goldsmith, has narrowed the transformative use doctrine, potentially weakening the argument for fair use protection for generative AI. As the courts begin to weigh in on these cases, the future of AI’s use of original works and its impact on the progress of science and the useful arts remains uncertain. Ultimately, the courts may determine whether generative AI will be a boon or a bane for creativity and innovation in the digital age.