Artificial Intelligence and Copyright Issues

One of the key aspects is intellectual property related to the data used for training and developing AI. Recent lawsuits between companies in the U.S. and the future rulings of U.S. courts serve as important "tests" to predict how these disputes, which are expected to increase, will be handled.

First and foremost, it's essential to understand that data is a crucial foundation for AI development. Simply put, AI is built on three main components: computing power (processors), combined with data and algorithms. Without data for AI to learn from, AI cannot become intelligent. Data, therefore, is the input that makes AI progressively "smarter."

The issue at hand is where businesses, especially tech companies, get their data to train AI; and even if the data is readily available on the internet, is it truly free? Recent lawsuits in the field of journalistic data, involving OpenAI—one of the most renowned AI development companies today—are, therefore, worth closely watching.

On December 27, 2023, The New York Times (NYT) filed a lawsuit against Microsoft and OpenAI—the company behind ChatGPT—accusing them of copyright infringement and intellectual property misuse of the newspaper's content. NYT alleges that Microsoft and OpenAI used data from millions of the newspaper’s articles without permission to train OpenAI’s ChatGPT and Microsoft's Copilot AI assistant. NYT also claims that this caused billions of dollars in damages to the newspaper. The NYT lawsuit is expected to ignite a legal battle between news agencies and AI development companies over copyright issues. Previously, the Daily Mail had considered pursuing legal action against OpenAI, while BBC, The Guardian, and CNN have already blocked automated chatbots from crawling their websites.

However, many are concerned that putting AI companies at risk of copyright issues could hinder the development of this technology, as accurate AI models need to be trained on "clean" and high-quality data such as journalistic content. Therefore, many AI companies have proactively negotiated commercial agreements with news publishers to obtain licensed content, such as OpenAI’s partnerships with Associated Press and Axel Springer. The Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism predicts that similar agreements may become more common this year.

It is clear that achieving a balance between protecting intellectual property rights and fostering AI development remains a challenging puzzle. The arguments from each side have their merits: data created by content creators cannot be free; however, if the costs are too high, it will hinder the progress of developing new and potentially transformative technologies, of which AI is just one example.

For Vietnam, closely monitoring technological and legal developments related to AI is essential, as understanding and grasping these trends will help different parties better prepare for the impending AI wave. For businesses, proactively seeking permission or negotiating commercial agreements to collect and use data for AI training with partners, whether domestic or international, is crucial to avoiding litigation risks.

For policymakers, it is urgent to promote the opening of public data which is available from state agencies and to help Vietnamese businesses access this data, providing valuable support to reduce the costs of accessing data in the AI development process. Above all, the world has truly entered the AI era. To avoid being left behind, approaching AI from business, policy, and legal perspectives by closely following and learning from the latest trends in leading countries is a must.

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Authors: Nguyen Quang Dong, Nguyen Tra My - Institute for Policy Studies and Communication Development

Source: Đại Biểu Nhân Dân

(This translation was provided by an automated AI translation tool)