Opinion: AI comes for the journalists — Thought-provoking piece from law professor Seán O’Connor. “Ultimately, generative AI is engaged in exactly the opposite of what human learning is supposed to achieve. Rather than mastering the styles of other experts to develop new and better ones, it is a snaking hose flailing around uncontrollably, spewing thoughtless sequences of text based solely on probabilities that one word comes after another in human expression.”
AI and Copyright Law in 2023: Federal Government Activities — AI moved to the forefront of just about everybody’s policy agenda in 2023, and those involved with copyright policy were no exception. The Copyright Alliance’s Rachel Kim provides a comprehensive overview of notable developments over the past year in the US Copyright Office, Executive Branch, and Congress.
How copyright law could threaten the AI industry in 2024 — Lawsuits challenging the use of copyrighted works to train many of the leading generative AI models on the market also exploded over the past year. Reuters’ Blake Brittain takes a peak at what we may expect from the US courts over the next twelve months.
Silenzio! ‘Anna’s Archive’ Shadow Library Blocked Following Publishers’ Complaint — “Appearing in the wake of the Z-Library shutdown late 2022, shadow library ‘Anna’s Archive’ now bills itself as the ‘largest truly open library in human history.’ A complaint filed in December 2023 by the Italian Publishers Association, which represents publishers of books, scientific journals, and digital content, paints a somewhat different picture. As a result, telecoms regulator AGCOM has issued immediate blocking instructions to ISPs.”
AI Copyright Hacking Exemption Would Boost Trust, Advocates Say — A graduate student has proposed, as part of the current rulemaking to permit circumvention of technological protection measures on copyrighted works, an exemption permitting researchers to strip technical locks from AI models themselves to research bias. Will we see AI companies suddenly realize the value of copyright protection?