AI Can’t Grow Without Copyrighted Data—Like It or Not
Added 2025-03-14 19:28:36 +0000 UTCIn spite of sky-high costs and little in the way of profits, generative AI systems continue to proliferate. The Trump administration has called for a national AI Action Plan to guide America's burgeoning AI industry, and OpenAI was happy to use that as an opportunity to decry the negative effect of copyright enforcement on AI development. Google has also released its policy proposal, which agrees with OpenAI on copyright while also prompting the government to back the AI industry with funding and policy changes.
Like OpenAI, Google has been accused of piping copyrighted data into its models, but content owners are wising up. Google is fighting several lawsuits, and the New York Times' lawsuit against OpenAI could set the precedent that AI developers are liable for using that training data without permission. Google wants to avoid that. It calls for "balanced copyright rules," but its preference doesn't seem all that balanced.
The dearth of available training data is a well-known problem in AI development. Google claims that access to public, often copyrighted, data is critical to improving generative AI systems. Google wants to be able to use publicly available data (free or copyrighted) for AI development without going through "unpredictable, imbalanced, and lengthy negotiations." The document claims any use of copyrighted material in AI will not significantly impact rightsholders.
According to Google's position, the federal government's investment in AI should also extend to modernizing the nation's energy infrastructure. Google says AI firms need more reliable power to keep training and running inference to advance AI. The company projects global data center power demand will rise by 40 gigawatts from 2024 to 2026. It claims the current US infrastructure and permitting processes are not up to the task of supplying the AI industry.
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