The struggle between creators and AI Tech Titans on copyright law and licensing is heating up. On March 15, in a letter submitted by the Trump administration’s Office of Science and Technology Policy, more than 400 actors, writers and directors called on the government to uphold current copyright laws.
Signators include Paul McCartney, Guillermo Del Toro, Ava Duvernay, Cynthia Erivo, Phoebe Waller-Bridge, Ayo Edebiri, Chris Rock and Mark Ruffalo. The letter specifically asks the government not to grant fair use exceptions to tech companies that train AI.
Firm use is a fundamental concept in copyright law that allows people to use protected content even in limited and specific circumstances, even if they are not copyright holders. Previously, AI companies were eager to train and improve their AI models for human-generated content, so they needed to pay publishers and content catalogs to obtain the material. The fairly used exceptions will make it easier for tech companies to access content without expensive legal barriers.
Google and Openai proposed similar changes to current copyright law in their proposal for AI action plans for the government. Such exceptions allow it to “avoid highly unpredictable, unbalanced and lengthy negotiations with data holders during the model development process.” Openai wrote that the rational use of AI is a necessary condition for protecting U.S. national security.
Part of the government’s recent focus on AI is concerns about losing global status and the technological advantages of AI development, which is a concern for rivals like China. The Chinese Artificial Intelligence Association (such as Chatgpt competitor DeepSeek) is continuing to deal with it, but is concerned about its security and lack of guardrails.
In other words, tech companies like Google and OpenAI, each focusing on market capitalization in hundreds of millions and trillions of dollars, do not want to go through established legal processes and pay for what they need to compete with the AIS developed in China. They hope the Trump administration will compile it as part of the AI action plan.
Hollywood signatories strongly object to the possibility of rewriting copyright laws. “The United States has not been a global cultural power by chance,” the letter reads. “Our success stems directly from our basic respect for IP and copyright, rewarding the creative adventures of talented and hardworking Americans from every state and region.”
The U.S. Copyright Office has been developing guidance on how to deal with copyright requirements for AI-generated content. But people have been worried for years – even prosecuting – how to train AI models in ways that could infringe on copyright holders’ rights. In the summer of 2023, members of the American Society of Writers and Screen Actors, as well as members of the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists or SAG-AFTRA, have conducted a double strike in 2023, including AI as one of their main concerns. Neither Openai nor Google share what constitutes Chatgpt and Gemini’s training database.
The copyright equation becomes more complicated because we know that at least one company has copyright claims for images. It leaves room for uncertainty in the chaos of copyright and artificial intelligence.
Trump administration and artificial intelligence
So far, there hasn’t been much meaningful progress in government oversight or legislation to regulate how technology giants like OpenAI and Google develop AI. Former President Biden has made many major tech companies voluntarily commit to developing AI responsibly and attempt to develop some guardrails around AI development through executive orders. But within hours of his inauguration, Trump with one of his own AI executive orders withdrew the AI executive order.
Trump, in accordance with his executive order, said he wanted to “maintain and enhance the US’s global AI dominance.” The AI action plan is the way he plans to develop his own version of technology policies. Vice President Vance proposed the plan at the International AI Summit in January, introducing the government’s view on technology more broadly.
“When meetings like this convene to discuss state-of-the-art technology, I usually think our response is too self-aware and too risk-averse,” Vance said.
In addition to calling for feedback, President Trump’s January executive order calls on US AI to “get rid of ideological bias or engineered social agenda.”
Meanwhile, technology leaders such as Google’s Sundar Pichai and Openai’s Sam Altman have been joining the new government. Altman donated a million dollars to Trump’s inaugural fund, and Google as a company donated the same money. Altman and Pichai were given front seats for the swearing-in ceremony alongside Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg, X’s Elon Musk and Amazon’s Jeff Bezos. Executives may hope that Trump’s good side will help them pave the way for the future of tech companies — even in this case, it will disrupt copyright laws that have been established for decades.
Many people (not only creators) are concerned that unregulated development and use of AI can be disastrous.
What’s next for copyright and artificial intelligence?
The U.S. Copyright Office is expected to release another report on AI, particularly on the “legal impact of training AI models on copyrighted works, licensing considerations, and assigning any potential liability.”
At the same time, many proactive litigation may set important precedents for the judiciary. Thomson Reuters just won the case, saying AI companies didn’t use their content to build reasonable use cases for AI. Legislation like “The No False Law” is also being passed through Congress, but it is not clear what future AI legislation will look like.
For more information, check out SXSW’s AI and Art Clash and why a company’s anti-ai commitment resonates with creators.
