AI’s Copyright Conundrum
When future generations look back at the rise of artificial intelligence technologies, the year 2025 may be remembered as a major turning point, when the industry took concrete steps towards greater inclusion, and embraced decentralized frameworks that recognize and fairly compensate every stakeholder.
AI’s Copyright Conundrum
OpenAI, the world’s most prominent AI company, has already admitted that its iconic chatbot, ChatGPT, would not have been possible without training it on copyrighted material. OpenAI trained ChatGPT on everything that was posted on the public internet prior to 2023, but the people who created that content – much of which is copyrighted – have not been paid any compensation; a major source of contention.
A Growing Case for Decentralized AI
There’s an opportunity for decentralized AI projects like that proposed by the ASI Alliance to offer an alternative way of AI model development. The Alliance is building a framework that gives content creators a method to retain control over their data, along with mechanisms for fair reward should they choose to share their material with AI model makers. It’s a more ethical basis for AI development, and 2025 could be the year it gets more attention.
AI’s Copyright Conundrum
The vast majority of AI models, including those that purport to be open-source, like Meta Platforms’ Llama 3 model, are guilty of scraping the public internet for training data. AI developers routinely help themselves to whatever content they find online, ignoring the fact that much of the material is copyrighted. Copyright laws are designed to protect the creators of original works, like books, articles, songs, software, artworks, and photos, from being exploited, and make unauthorized use of such materials illegal.
A Growing Case for Decentralized AI
The likes of OpenAI, Meta, Anthropic, StabilityAI, Perplexity AI, Cohere, and AI21 Labs get around the law by claiming ‘fair use,’ reference to an ambiguous clause in copyright law that allows the limited use of protected content without the need to obtain permission from the creator. But there’s no clear definition of what actually constitutes ‘fair use,’ and many authors claim that AI threatens their livelihoods.
Conclusion
The arguments around AI’s infringement of copyright are likely to last years without being resolved, and the legal ambiguity around data scraping, along with the growing recognition among practitioners that such practices are unethical, are helping to strengthen the case for decentralized frameworks. Decentralized AI provides developers with a more principled model for AI training where the rights of content creators are respected, and where every contributor can be rewarded fairly.
FAQs
Q: What is the ASI Alliance?
A: The ASI Alliance is a decentralized AI project that aims to create a transparent and ethical AI system, where every contributor is rewarded fairly.
Q: What is the decentralized AI framework?
A: The decentralized AI framework allows content creators to retain control over their data and track when it’s used by AI models. It integrates mechanisms encoded in smart contracts to ensure that everyone is fairly compensated.
Q: What is the ASI initiative?
A: The ASI initiative is a project focused on the development of more transparent and ethical "domain-specific models" specializing in areas like robotics, science, and medicine.
Q: How does the ASI Alliance work?
A: The ASI Alliance operates a model of decentralized governance, where token holders can vote on key decisions to ensure the project evolves to benefit stakeholders, rather than the shareholders of corporations.
