AI And The Interplay Between Litigation And Licensing

The growth of AI depends on many factors, and a foundational factor is access to datasets to train LLMs for learning patterns and being able to 'connect the dots'. Several players in AI train their LLMs using online datasets - books, news articles, and other sources - so that their LLM can more quickly 'learn' how to mimic human intelligence and generate new content. And lawsuits have been filed by dozens of entities who argue that access to their content infringes their copyrights.

Other entities have taken the tack of licensing their content to LLMs. The upside is, presumably, royalty revenue and additional protections (for both sides) that are built into the agreement. The potential downside is that the outcomes of the lawsuits could undermine the value of a license to content by determining that the access is fair use.