Did AI companies win a fight with authors? Technically
In the past week, big AI companies have – in theory – chalked up two big legal wins. But things are not quite as straightforward as they may seem, and copyright law hasn’t been this exciting since last month’s showdown at the Library of Congress.
First, Judge William Alsup ruled it was fair use for Anthropic to train on a series of authors’ books. Then, Judge Vince Chhabria dismissed another group of authors’ complaint against Meta for training on their books. Yet far from settling the legal conundrums around modern AI, these rulings might have just made things even more complicated.
Both cases are indeed qualified victories for Meta and Anthropic. And at least one judge – Alsup – seems sympathetic to some of the AI industry’s core arguments about copyright. But that same ruling railed against the startup’s use of pirated media, leaving it potentially on the hook for massive financial damage. (Anthropic even admitted it did not initially purchase a copy of every book it used.) Meanwhile, the Meta ruling asserted that because a flood of AI content could crowd out human artists, the entire field of AI system training might be fundamentally at odds with fair use. And neither case a …