On August 30th, the U.S. Copyright Office published a Notice of Inquiry (NOI) seeking comment on issues related to the use of copyrighted material to train artificial intelligence (AI) systems, the appropriate levels of transparency and disclosure with respect to the use of copyrighted material, and the legal status of AI-generated outputs.
Specifically, the Copyright Office seeks comment on:
- information about the collection and curation of AI datasets, how such datasets might be used to train AI models, the sources of materials used, and whether permission and/or compensation should be required when copyrighted works are included;
- the proper scope of copyright for material created by AI systems;
- how copyright liability principles could apply to work created by those systems; and,
- the implications of generative AI systems’ ability to mimic the voices, likeness, or styles of artists and performers on areas outside of the scope of copyright law, including international treaties and unfair competition law.
Initial written comments are due on October 18, 2023. Reply comments are due on November 15, 2023, and should be submitted electronically at Regulations.gov.
Please contact Assistant Chief Counsel Jamie Saloom at jamie.saloom@sba.gov with your small business concerns.