Openai is inconsistent in many things-is it a non-profit or profit-profit? Is Sam Altman fit to be a CEO or not? But one thing that the company has always been consistent about this is that AI training requires access to copyright content. Now, despite many disagreeing voices, Openai wants the US government to rule such unrestricted access and approve it as “proper use”.
The company argues that the US will fall behind China in the AI race if companies do not have the freedom to train their models on copyright content – claiming that the “excessive burden state law” will slow down the process and affect the results.
If you are a manufacturer, it can also affect you. Artists, writers, programmers, photographers and filmmakers with online portfolio, for example, are all owners of their work, but if this plan passes, you will have no basis to complain when your content is used to train AI. If you post photos of your work online, more physical creative discoveries such as fashion design, jewelry-building, or sculpting are not safe.
It seems like a cruel joke that Openai wants AI to count as a “fair” use of copyright work when products will be used to generate new mangled versions of individual compositions. A particularly direct example of this was only last month when French artists of Apex Legends were allegedly asked to participate in training the AI model, which would eventually be used to generate voice lines for sports.
There are lots of commercial uses for a variety of creative materials, but better AI models get to mimic it, the more difficult it will be to earn money as a manufacturer. Companies have a track record of choosing the least expensive option in any situation, and it is very few reason to believe that it will change soon at any time.
It is difficult to imagine what the solution for the creators will be in this situation. Individuals who really care about protecting their work can start password-protection to their online portfolio, renounce some old examples for training sets, and share the rest only on human request.
Certainly there will be a demand for a proper solution – some types of new portfolio or creative sharing platform which only humans can use. This will require a very hardcore authentication process, but certainly there are people who take adequate care about this to renounce some convenience.
The White House has not yet responded to the openiI plan, so we have to wait and see how it develops.
