With AI initiatives developing at a rapid pace, copyright holders are on high alert. In addition to legislation, several currently ongoing lawsuits will help to define what’s allowed and what isn’t. Responding to a lawsuit from several authors, Meta now admits that it used portions of the Books3 dataset to train its Llama models. This dataset includes many pirated books.
Source: Meta Admits Use of ‘Pirated’ Book Dataset to Train AI * TorrentFreak
According to Luminate’s 2023 Year-End Music Report, fully 158.6 million tracks each received 1,000 or fewer plays on audio streaming services in 2023. That number amounts to a whopping86.2% of the 184 million music tracks that Luminate measured on audio streaming services at the close of last year via ISRCs. Even more tellingly, a total of 45.6 million tracks received zero plays in 2023.
Amazon is eliminating hundreds of jobs across its film and television studio and Twitch streaming platform in an effort to rein in costs. The e-commerce company has invested billions of dollars into building out its Prime Video service, and acquired MGM for $6.5 billion in 2022. Twitch, Amazon’s videogame streaming platform, is also cutting about 500 roles.
Source: Amazon Is Laying Off Hundreds at Prime Video, MGM Studios and Twitch
Source: Google Trims Hundreds of Jobs as It Marshals Resources for AI
As use of the human-mimicking chatbots evolved into a sticking point in the Hollywood strikes, creators took to the courts, accusing AI firms of mass-scale copyright infringement after their works were allegedly used as training materials. In the backdrop of these legal volleys, a question stands out: Why haven’t any major studios sued to protect their intellectual property like other rights holders?
Source: Studios’ Now-or-Never Choice: Sue AI Companies or Score a Major IP Deal
Early discussions involve a fee to use works as training materials and a prohibition on outputs that borrow too much from existing material. Under the model, there’d be a fee for the ingestion of works and another for outputs that reference content. Talks include restrictions on prompting the chatbots to produce material “in the style of” authors, using characters from other works and producing summaries of books.
Source: Authors Guild Exploring Blanket License For Artificial Intelligence Companies
The No Artificial Intelligence Fake Replicas And Unauthorized Duplications (No AI FRAUD) Act was brought forward on Wednesday (January 10) by a bipartisan group of House Representatives led by Democrat Rep. Madeleine Dean of Pennsylvania and Republican Rep. Maria Salazar of Florida. The bill goes a long way to establishing a “right of publicity” at the federal level in the United States.
Source: Music industry applauds introduction of ‘No AI FRAUD Act’ in US Congress
The Ensuring Likeness Voice and Image Security (ELVIS) Act, Tennessee’s proposed legislature to update the state’s Protection of Personal Rights law, is rapidly garnering support throughout the music industry. Introduced today in the heart of Nashville, the bill was presented by Governor Bill Lee, alongside Senate Majority Leader Jack Johnson, and House Majority Leader William Lamberth.
Source: Tennessee’s ‘ELVIS Act’ is Quickly Gaining Music Industry Support
On Wednesday, news industry executives urged Congress for legal clarification that using journalism to train AI assistants like ChatGPT is not fair use, as claimed by companies such as OpenAI. Instead, they would prefer a licensing regime for AI training content that would force Big Tech companies to pay for content in a method similar to rights clearinghouses for music.
Source: At Senate AI hearing, news executives fight against “fair use” claims for AI training data
A bipartisan group of U.S. House lawmakers announced a new bill on Wednesday (Jan. 10) that regulates the use of AI for cloning voices and likenesses. Called the No Artificial Intelligence Fake Replicas And Unauthorized Duplications Act of 2023 (“No AI FRAUD” Act), the bill aims to establish a federal framework for protecting one’s voice and likeness and lays out First Amendment protections.
Source: House Lawmakers Unveil No AI FRAUD Act in Push for Federal Protections for Voice, Likeness