Who Owns AI Generated Content?

In this issue, we cover Copyright shields. OpenAI announced this on the dev-day, so we dive into reasons of why it was announced and if it can "meaningfully" protect you from lawsuits.

December 05, 2023

Imagine this: You're using an AI tool to generate content, be it code, images, or text. One fine day, you get a copyright notice from the “author” claiming the content you added in your book / wrote in your code / posted on social media belongs to them.

A simple illustration showing a robotic hand holding a pen, poised over a paper with copyright symbols and legal documents scattered around. The background is a digital grid, symbolizing the digital nature of AI. The image should have a straightforward, clear composition, focusing on the theme of AI and copyright in a direct and less abstract manner.

Well, honestly just like most of us you wouldn’t know what to do, because you, probably like most of us, used ChatGPT / AI Tools to generate this content.

This confusion has been prevalent ever since AI went mainstream in January 2023. A lot of lawsuits. A LOT. Notably, a group of authors, including names like Jonathan Franzen and George R.R. Martin, have filed class-action lawsuits alleging that OpenAI's use of their books to train ChatGPT is a "systematic theft on a mass scale" and are seeking damages and a permanent injunction.

Honestly, it wasn’t like this was not expected, especially when initial AI Images literally had watermarks on them.

So the AI Generated content does not belong to them.

So does it belong to you? Is AI Generated content copyrightable by you?

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However, the legality of using copyrighted works in AI training is unsettled, with ongoing debates and lawsuits testing 'fair use' boundaries.

Experts noted that while copyright law is flexible, it may not fully address the complexities of responsibility and implications in AI-generated content.

While the work does not belong to you. It is most certainly derived from someone else’s work. But all of this is too confusing and lead’s enterprise companies to choose not to dabble in AI.

Which paved the way for the OpenAI’s announcement (on dev day - a week before all the fiasco) - the Copyright shield. 

It promises to have your back, legally and financially, in case of such copyright infringement claims. This is “especially” helpful for code, where syntax similarities can sometimes be extremely close.

But Why?

This is probably not a response to copyright lawsuits, rather a more tech or business leadership move to win more enterprise customers. This is also not a new practice in the enterprise technology space, as indemnification clauses have been part of software licenses for a long time.

But the real question is

Does OpenAI have your back?

OpenAI announced that for their ChatGPT Enterprise and API users, they’re ready to take the legal brunt if any copyright issues arise from the content generated by their tools. But remember, this does not cover the free versions. So if you are a large enterprise or an API user, you can count on them (probably). But for non-enterprise users (like most of us) - we’re on our own.

Also note a lawsuit is unlikely, pretty much everyone with a computer uses AI Generation Tools today. So if you get into a legal battle, you’re probably having a terrible day.

What else is going on in AI?

  1. OpenAI delays its GPT Store launch to 2024 amid leadership changes. :(

  2. Amazon Web Services announces new AI products, partnerships, and optimizations.

  3. Salesforce and Amazon Web Services expand partnership to integrate generative AI technologies.

  4. Significant investments fuel growth in the generative AI sector, with startups like Pika raising substantial funds.

  5. Abu Dhabi launches AI71, a new AI company, and Leonardo.Ai generates over 700 million images on AWS.

Favourite tool from this week:

Until next time.