Meta and Anthropic Cases Complicate the Landscape of AI Copyright

In the past week, rulings from Judges Alsup and Chhabria provided legal victories for AI companies Anthropic and Meta regarding training large language models on copyrighted books. Judge Alsup deemed Anthropic’s use as “fair use,” despite criticizing their initial reliance on pirated materials, which could expose them to significant damages. Chhabria dismissed the authors’ claims against Meta but highlighted concerns over AI’s potential harm to the market for human creativity. Both judgments focused on training inputs but did not clarify the legality of AI-generated outputs, a crucial issue in copyright law. The distinction between training on legally acquired versus pirated material was emphasized, suggesting companies may need to pay for rights to avoid infringing. Future litigation remains likely, and these cases raise broader questions about the impact of generative AI on creativity and the copyright framework’s effectiveness in protecting artists while fostering innovation.

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