OpenAI and Google Press for Relief on Copyright, State Laws

OpenAI is urging the Trump Administration to declare AI training fair use, seeking unfettered access to copyrighted material for the purpose of educating models. The company is also asking for relief from state AI rules and more permissive AI export rules in a response to President Trump’s call for a U.S. “AI Action Plan.” The deadline to submit responses to the National Science Foundation and Office of Science & Technology Policy (OSTP) request for information (RFI) regarding the plan was Saturday. Google also publicized its response, which largely echoed OpenAI’s points.

“Currently, courts are mulling whether AI training is fair use, as rights holders say that AI models trained on creative works threaten to replace them in markets and water down humanity’s creative output overall,” Ars Technica summarizes, adding that “OpenAI is just one AI company fighting with rights holders in several dozen lawsuits, arguing that AI transforms copyrighted works it trains on and alleging that AI outputs aren’t substitutes for original works.”

OpenAI’s proposal, issued Thursday and linked to a post on its website, emphasizes the need for a more permissive environment in order for U.S. AI firms to maintain a lead over Chinese competition,

The company requests an update to “the Diffusion rule,” a reference to the Framework for Artificial Intelligence Diffusion issued by the U.S. Department of Commerce as one of the last acts of the Biden-Harris administration. Compliance is due to kick in May 15.

“Following on the heels of OpenAI,” Google’s policy proposal also calls for weak copyright restrictions, arguing “that ‘fair use and text-and-data mining exceptions’ are ‘critical’ to AI development and AI-related scientific innovation,” reports TechCrunch.

Likewise, Google calls for “‘balanced’ export controls,” TechCrunch says, quoting Google calling on the White House “to pursue an active international economic policy to advocate for American values and support AI innovation internationally.”

CNBC notes that in January, Trump revoked Biden’s October 2023 executive order on the “Safe, Secure, and Trustworthy Development and Use of Artificial Intelligence.” Trump “subsequently issued a new executive order, declaring that ‘it is the policy of the United States to sustain and enhance America’s global AI dominance.’”

The White House subsequently issued its RFI. CNBC says the “AI Action Plan” is due to the president in July.

The ChatGPT maker also stressed that the hundreds of states’ AI-related bills “currently pending in the U.S. risk undercutting America’s technological progress at a time when it faces renewed competition from China,” urging the administration to “consider providing some relief for AI companies big and small from state rules — if and when enacted — in exchange for voluntary access to models,” according to Bloomberg.

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