A bill introduced by Senators Hawley and Blumenthal would require AI companies to obtain consent before using copyrighted content for training. It establishes a federal tort allowing individuals to sue companies for non-consensual use of copyrighted works or personal data. The bill seeks to address the concerning issue of whether AI use of copyrighted materials falls under fair use. Recent court decisions have allowed some AI companies to use creators' works without compensation. The legislation aims to empower content creators against Big Tech's practices.
"AI companies are robbing the American people blind while leaving artists, writers, and other creators with zero recourse," the Republican Senator noted in a press release.
The AI Accountability and Data Protection Act's text does not mention fair use. However, it does present both personally identifiable information and copyrighted material as types of 'covered data' that require the data owner's prior consent to be used for training.
Arguably the most important question in the media industry today is whether AI companies' use of copyrighted training materials constitutes 'fair use', a legal shield against infringement claims.
Last month, a group of authors lost in court when a judge accepted Anthropic's claim that the company has the right to use their books to train Claude AI, all without compensation or permission.
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