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Generative AI and the Law

Generative AI in the past year has become a "useful" technology - especially the development of LLMs, voice synthesis, image generation,.... . Now governments and the legal world are in catch-up mode to decide how existing legislation can be used and/or be adapted to cope with this new technology. Within many countries and regions, there is lively debate and discussion about the most prudent course of action and what trade-offs should be made between appropriate regulation without stifling innovation and falling behind on the technology front. These debates have necessitated increased dialogue between legal and AI experts. In this seminar we will explore and acquaint ourselves with some of this informed debate and then zoom in on the issues regarding Intellectual Property w.r.t. the whole generative process. We will focus on the debate within the US as the debates are in English (!) and also many of the big technology firms driving the progress in generative AI are based there and thus what happens in the US will have an outsized global influence.

Background Overview

A great place to start is the recent workshop at ICML 2023 - Generative AI + Law (GenLaw) ’23 Links to an external site.. Everyone should (skim-) read this paper resulting from the workshop as it lays the foundation for many relevant issues:

 

Copyright Issues

The US Copyright Office currently has a request out for comments on copyright and generative AI (Artificial Intelligence Study Links to an external site.). The document with the official call is available here: Notice of inquiry and request for comments Links to an external site..  The quote below taken from this document highlights their need to find concrete solutions to the issues raised by generative AI:

"Over the past several years, the Office has begun to receive applications to register works containing AI-generated material, some of which name AI systems as an author or co-author.4 At the same time, copyright owners have brought infringement claims against AI companies based on the training process for, and outputs derived from, generative AI systems.5 As concerns and uncertainties mount, Congress and the Copyright Office have been contacted by many stakeholders with diverse views. The Office has publicly announced a broad initiative earlier this year to explore these issues. This Notice is part of that initiative and builds on the Office’s research, expertise, and prior work, as well as information that stakeholders have provided to the Office."

Much of the document is a series of grouped questions covering in very specific detail the potential issues raised by generative AI.

From this page one can access Submitted comments Links to an external site.. Comments have been submitted by the relevant big companies, academics,  artists,  representative unions and individuals. Examples of submitted comments are

Most of the documents mentioned cite this work so it is probably worth skimming it.

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