The U.S. Government Supports OpenAI's Copyright Lawsuit Position, Stating AI Training is Protected by "Fair Use"

Dynamic Beating AI News Flash: According to the WSJ, the U.S. government has filed a court document supporting OpenAI's position in its copyright dispute with The New York Times and other publishers, stating that using news content to train artificial intelligence models aligns with the "fair use" principle in U.S. copyright law.

The U.S. Department of Justice stated in the document that restricting AI companies from using copyrighted content to train large language models would contravene basic copyright principles and hinder innovation and scientific progress. The New York Times sued Microsoft and OpenAI in December 2023, alleging that ChatGPT and Microsoft's Copilot used a significant amount of Times content to train models and generate responses.

The U.S. government argued that AI training is "highly transformative" to the original works and does not harm the market value of the copyrighted works. Tightening the fair use rules could lead to only large tech companies being able to afford licensing fees and weaken the competitiveness of the U.S. AI industry. The parties involved are expected to submit new motions after completing evidence exchange, seeking a court ruling on some key disputes.