Source: Dentons

Dentons provides an analysis of the central legal battle surrounding generative Artificial Intelligence: whether the use of copyrighted materials to train AI models constitutes "fair use" under U.S. copyright law. The article explains that numerous lawsuits have been filed by creators, authors, and artists who allege that their work has been ingested and copied by AI developers without permission or compensation, amounting to copyright infringement. In response, AI companies have asserted that their use of this data is transformative and falls under the fair use doctrine, a legal defense that permits the limited use of copyrighted material without authorization from the rights holders.

The analysis delves into the four factors that courts weigh when considering a fair use defense: the purpose and character of the use; the nature of the copyrighted work; the amount and substantiality of the portion used; and the effect of the use upon the potential market for the copyrighted work. The article highlights the complexity of applying this traditional legal framework to the novel context of AI training. A key question is whether the AI's output is "transformative" enough to justify the copying of the original works. The outcomes of these ongoing court cases are expected to have profound and lasting implications for both the creative industries and the future development of AI technology, potentially reshaping the landscape of copyright law.