Groundbreaking Court Rulings Could Upend the Future of AI Training and Copyright—What You Need to Know Now
Here I expect that the many LLM tools that similarly started with pirated content should be concerned. The ruling could fundamentally change the marketplace if training on unlicensed content is found to be infringing. It is pretty easy to presume most LLM model developers were using unlicensed, copyrighted material at least until a sizable market for AI licensing began developoing in about 2023. Last month, Nick Clegg as much acknowledged this when he claimed that requiring consent would kill AI. On its face this is rather insane statement when one considers the billions of dollars flowing into AI development, and the licensing costs for content is still measured in the tens of millions of dollars. Publishers have made a strong case that training was done using copyrighted content, notably Tim O’Reilly a few weeks ago, but there are many others. If a large model developer was to be found to be liable for using ‘pirated’ copies of copyrighted works, each work would be eligible for compensation and these penalties could bankrupt many companies.
