Generative AI technologies, such as OpenAI’s ChatGPT and text-to-image tools such as Stable Diffusion, have exploded in popularity. These tools can produce everything from philosophy essays, poems, and computer code to high-realism images, with a few simple prompts. For example, you could prompt a Gen AI tool to create a self-portrait of Picasso with a bandaged ear in the style of Van Gogh, and you will get back roughly what you asked for. However, while clearly powerful, these technologies also raise important questions around copyright law. These AI systems are trained on vast datasets containing millions of creative works - but in most cases, the authors of those works weren't asked for permission or compensated. There are concerns that Generative AI could infringe copyrights on a massive scale, while also competing with, and potentially displacing, the human creators it trains on. In response, AI companies often argue that overly restrictive copyright settings could impede important technological progress. So how should policy and law evolve to deal with Generative AI?

Join host Professor Paul Formosa and guest Associate Professor Rita Matulionyte as they discuss Generative AI and the future of copyright.

This podcast focuses on Rita’s paper “Generative AI and Copyright: Exception, Compensation or Both?”, Intellectual Property Forum, 134, pp 33-40. Download a preprint here: https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=4652314