ArticlesLaw FirmsOrganizations
Follow

IP Law Daily, COPYRIGHT NEWS: Generative artificial intelligence comes under the watchful eye of Congress at a Senate panel hearing, (Jul 13, 2023)

Organizations Mentioned:Adobe | Emory University | Universal Music Group, Inc.

By Matthew Hersh, J.D.

But the hearing was promptly overshadowed by reports of a federal investigation into Open AI, one of the most prominent AI companies.

A panel of five witnesses from the creative arts and the high-tech sector provided testimony to address issues surrou ...

By Matthew Hersh, J.D.

But the hearing was promptly overshadowed by reports of a federal investigation into Open AI, one of the most prominent AI companies.

A panel of five witnesses from the creative arts and the high-tech sector provided testimony to address issues surrounding the intersection of generative artificial intelligence (AI) technology and the need for protecting copyright, privacy and publicity rights, and consumers at a hearing held July 12 by the Senate Judiciary Committee’s Subcommittee Intellectual Property. While the witnesses and subcommittee members appeared to agree that some legislative action was necessary to both facilitate and rein in AI, witnesses disagreed as to the form it should take. But the hearing was overshadowed by reports that the Federal Trade Commission has opened an investigation into whether Open AI has engaged in unfair or deceptive practices in its collection and safeguarding of personal data.

The hearing was the second of two hearings on the impact of artificial intelligence technology on copyright holders that have been held this year by the Senate Judiciary Committee’s Subcommittee on Intellectual Property. The hearing, which focused on the intersection of artificial intelligence technology and copyright law, featured a company behind one of the most well-known AI technologies, three witnesses wary of the new technology, and a law professor urging caution for now on the copyright law front.

The artificial intelligence technology community was represented by Ben Brooks, Head of Public Policy for Stability AI, the company behind Stable Diffusion, an AI technology that allows users to create software-generated images through the inputting of search commands. The company’s written testimony aimed to reassure Senators and the public that AI technology was not a threat to creators because it was merely a “creative tool, not an independent agent,” and that its models were intended to produce only “new works” such as “a novel image, passage of text, block of code, series of instructions, or video clip.” The public policy executive also urged Congress to follow the lead of Singapore, Japan, and the European Union, in considering “safe harbors” for AI training that would “achieve similar effects to fair use.” Stability AI assured the committee that it was aware of the “challenges and the depth of concern among creators” and is “actively working to address these concerns through technology, standards, and best practice,” its head of public policy told a Senate subcommittee.

The creator community was represented, on the other hand, by executives for Universal Music Group and Adobe, as well as a prominent artist and illustrator. The record company’s written testimony, delivered by General Counsel Jeff Harleston, emphasized that while AI technology was a powerful tool for creators and that current copyright law was “largely fit for the purpose” of balancing the interests of creators, there were “cracks in the foundation” that needed repair. Specifically, Harleston urged Congress to enact a federal right of publicity law and encourage development of policy to ensure transparency into the data set used by AI companies so that performers, artists, and copyright owners could access that data set “without having to initiate full blown litigation.”

Adobe’s written testimony,provided by General Counsel and Chief Trust Officer Dana Rao, also supported the idea of a federal right of publicity statute “to help address concerns about AI being used without permission to copy likenesses for commercial benefit.” Adobe said its generative AI program, Adobe Firefly, was trained using licensed images from its own Adobe Stock photography collection.

The deepest concern over AI technology was tendered in the written testimony of Karla Ortiz, a San Francisco based concept artist and illustrator whose works have been used in blockbuster films such as Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, Loki, The Eternals, Black Panther, Avengers: Infinity War, and Doctor Strange. “I am no longer certain of my future as an artist,” Ortiz emphasized, as “a new technology has emerged that represents an existential threat to our careers.” Ortiz pointed to research studies finding that generative models produced “high fidelity reproductions” of underlying images used in its training data set—or at the current rate of use, “23,500,000 generated images that could be very similar to training data.” She urged Congress to update the Copyright Act to reaffirm that copyright requires human authorship and require disclosure of training data sets, and to pass laws “expressly authorizing those who have had their data used to train AI models without their consent the right to vindicate those rights in federal court and to seek statutory damages.”

Walking a middle line was Matthew Sag, a law professor at Emory University School of Law. His written testimony colorfully noted that “we are still a long way from the science fiction version of artificial general intelligence that thinks, feels, and refuses to ‘open the pod bay doors.’” He noted that an overhaul of copyright law in order to address AI issues was not necessary at this time and that “the most pressing issues for Congress to address in relation to AI and intellectual property rights are not copyright issues at all” but rather that “advances in deepfakes or synthetic media will be weaponized to harass, injure, and defame individuals and contribute to a toxic media environment where all sources of information are distrusted.”

While the issues discussed at the hearing have captured the attention of lawmakers and the public, the hearing was promptly overshaded only 12 hours later by a breaking news report from the Washington Post revealing that the Federal Trade Commission had opened an investigation into OpenAI, the company behind the now-ubiquitous ChatGPT technology. An FTC questionnaire published by the newspaper revealed that the agency was examining whether OpenAI “engaged in unfair or deceptive privacy or data security practices or engaged in unfair or deceptive practices relating to risks of harm to consumers.”

MainStory: TopStory Copyright IndustryNewsTrends TechnologyInternet PublicityRights GCNNews