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ARTICLE · 16 FEBRUARY 2023

Generative AI – Copyright Overview Part 1

Venable LLP
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Generative artificial intelligence (AI) is a technology promising to disrupt how artwork is created, software is developed, and text is written. This disruption brings with it a host of new legal...

United StatesIntellectual Property
Joseph B. Cahill
Joseph B. Cahill

Generative artificial intelligence (AI) is a technology promising to disrupt how artwork is created, software is developed, and text is written. This disruption brings with it a host of new legal questions surrounding intellectual property protections of these works—in particular, copyright protections. Analysis of new legal issues may be understood in relation to two key elements of a generative AI system: the input data and the output data. The first article in this series will focus on input data, while the next article will focus on output data.

Can a generative AI system use input that is protected by copyright law? In the United States, this question is evaluated under the Fair Use Doctrine. The decision in Authors Guild v. Google, Inc. (the "Google Books case") sheds light on this analysis. Google scanned digital copies of books and made the resulting search function available to the public. The plaintiffs in the case claimed that this constituted copyright

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