Copyright Office Punts on AI and Fair Use, One of the Biggest Questions Surrounding Gen AI

If you've been hoping for clarity from the US Copyright Office on AI training -- whether AI companies can use copyrighted materials under fair use or creators can claim infringement -- prepare to be disappointed. The Office released its third report on Friday, and it's not the major win tech companies hoped for, nor the full block some creators sought. The US Copyright Office set out in 2023 to release a series of reports, guidance for creators, dealing with the myriad of legal and ethical issues that arise from AI-generated content from software such as ChatGPT, Gemini, Meta AI and Dall-E. In previous reports, the Copyright Office ruled that entirely AI-generated content can't be copyrighted, while AI-edited content could still be eligible. These reports aren't law, but they give us a picture of how the agency is handling copyright protections in the age of AI. The third report, available now, isn't the final report; it's a "prepublication" version. Still, there won't be any major c ... Read full article.