Artificial intelligence and copyright

In the 2020s, the rapid advancement of deep learning-based generative artificial intelligence models are raising questions about whether copyright infringement occurs when the generative AI is trained or used. This includes text-to-image models such as Stable Diffusion and large language models such as ChatGPT. As of 2023, there are several pending US lawsuits challenging the use of copyrighted data to train AI models, with defendants arguing that this falls under fair use.^[1]

Popular deep learning models are trained on mass amounts of media scraped from the Internet, often utilizing copyrighted material.^[2] When assembling training data, the sourcing of copyrighted works may infringe on the copyright holder's exclusive right to control reproduction, unless covered by exceptions in relevant copyright laws. Additionally, using a model's outputs might violate copyright, and the model creator could be accused of vicarious liability and held responsible for that copyright infringement.