Skip to main content
R
Quote
Generative AI models are trained on copyright-protected data — is that legal?

James Vincent examines the AI-generated, oddly colored future of art and tries to find answers to important questions like whether or not it’s against the law.

The scary truth about AI copyright is nobody knows what will happen next

The most obvious suggestion is to license the data and pay its creators. For some, though, this will kill the industry. Bryan Casey and Mark Lemley, authors of “Fair Learning,” a legal paper that has become the backbone of arguments touting fair use for generative AI, say training datasets are so large that “there is no plausible option simply to license all of the underlying photographs, videos, audio files, or texts for the new use.”


Two images of the “Marilyn Diptych,” each in a different art style.
Illustration: Max-o-matic / The Verge