Two Federal Judges Rule In Separate Cases That Training AI Models Using Copyrighted Works Is Fair Use

Two federal judges have ruled that using copyrighted works to train an AI model is a "fair use" under copyright law. A brief overview of the cases and decisions are below.

Kadrey v. Meta Platforms (N.D. Cal. – Judge Vince Chhabria)

Thirteen well-known authors, led by novelist Richard Kadrey, accused Meta of downloading their books from "shadow libraries" and feeding them into its Llama models. Judge Chhabria denied the authors' motion and granted Meta partial summary judgment, holding that Meta's training use was fair as to these plaintiffs.

• Factor 1 (purpose/character): Training an LLM is "highly transformative" due to turning books into statistical patterns for a tool that can draft emails, translate text, or write code; the commercial motive did not outweigh that transformative use.