OpenAI highlights briefs supporting fair use for AI training

OpenAI says experts and leaders shared perspectives in court briefs supporting fair use[1]. The group it describes includes authors, journalists, creators, academics, accessibility advocates, legal experts, librarians, economists and business leaders[1]. OpenAI says restrictions on fair-use training would affect institutions building AI and people using it[1].

The AI Progress brief argues that AI training serves a different purpose from the copyrighted works it uses, does not give the public substitute access to those works and does not cause cognizable market harm[1]. A separate argument describes foundation-model training as an effort to build a general-purpose tool others can adapt, rather than to reproduce the works used in training[1]. Professor Matthew Sag argues that training copies and model outputs are not meaningfully similar under realistic conditions[1]. OpenAI characterizes The New York Times’ lawsuit as asking the court to disregard legal history and fair use in pursuit of what OpenAI calls an undeserved payday[1].

The briefs OpenAI cites also connect fair-use training to potential practical and economic effects. The Foundation for American Innovation argues that capabilities enabling new analysis, software and productive work have national-security value[1]. The U.S. government argues that excluding large language model training from fair use would hamper scientific and creative progress and hinder American prosperity and economic mobility[1]. Restrictions on fair-use training would affect institutions building AI and people using it, according to OpenAI[1]. Author Kevin Kelly describes each AI model as a new medium that gives authors capabilities to create texts and ideas and to reason[1].

OpenAI’s account includes examples from Wall and Siskind[1]. It says Wall and Siskind argued that AI helps them create more and extend their work into new modes of expression[1]. Siskind uses AI across her business, including administration, developing ideas and finding new clients, according to the brief[1]. Wall says AI helps him manage his music business, lower costs and spend more time composing[1]. Public Knowledge separately argued that fair use has protected image search and full-text book search[1]. Journalist Ron Suskind and law professor Brian L. Frye argued that OpenAI’s use of newspaper articles did not affect the plaintiffs’ ability to sell consumers access to those articles[1].