AI ingestion of IP is fair use, says ex-USCO counsel

26-05-2023

Marisa Woutersen

AI ingestion of IP is fair use, says ex-USCO counsel

everything possible / Shutterstock.com

Former US Copyright Office general counsel maintains that AI use of copyrighted material when training models can be deemed as fair use | Another ex-GC forcefully argues against this viewpoint in a letter to the same IP subcommittee.

The processing of copyrighted work by artificial intelligence (AI) when training models should be considered fair use, according to a former general counsel of the US Copyright Office (USCO).

Sy Damle, now partner at Latham & Watkins, delivered this controversial viewpoint before the US Congress judiciary committee’s IP subcommittee on May 17, saying that such actions “will generally fall within the established bounds of fair use”.

In his speech, he said that while “outside of some unspecified cases of machine memorisation or close reproduction that might occasionally ‘go too far,’ the input side of ingestion and processing by generative AI is almost categorically privileged as ‘fair use’”.


AI, IP, copyright, US Copyright Office, Sy Damle, Latham & Watkins, Jon Baugmarten, Stability AI

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