Is it legal to data mine others' work to train AI?

Anyone who has ever penned a poem, article or book could find their creative output feeding an AI monster!!

Artistic or academic works are regularly used to train the algorithms of generative AI – but is it fair, and what does the law protect exactly?

LJMU academic Dr Alison Lui has personal skin in the game after Anthropic, which owns Claude AI, used her book 'Financial stability and prudential regulation’ to train its algorithm without her permission.

Alison, Associate Professor in Corporate and Financial Law, is part of the biggest copyright settlement ever - Bartz v Anthropic, which concludes its day in court in the US on 23 April.

In a bid to explain not only the legal aspects but also the ethics and prospects for future copyright protections, Alison is speaking publicly on the case this Friday, April 17 at the City of Liverpool Rotary Club.

Bartz v Anthropic

An initial ruling in Bartz v Anthropic – named for thriller author Andrea Bartz – has found that the tech company’s work was fair when based on legally purchased print copies of books but infringed when electronic copyrighted books were illegally downloaded.

Alison believes that balancing competing interests in advancing innovation with protection of authors' original works is difficult but is concerned that the law is not keeping pace with AI developments.

Much of the controversy revolves around tech company claims to have filter software in place which ensures that the AI outputs they create are separated from the inputs. According to Anthropic, there are no traceable links between the authors' works and Claude's outputs

Says Alison: “I am not aware that there is any regulation or law that makes it compulsory for other tech companies to use this filter software.  Little is known about this filter software and the 'black box' problem emerges, in that the general public know very little about how tech companies use copyrighted works and what safeguards are in place. There is very little transparency and regulation surrounding this area.”

The event on April 17 is open to all. Please see more https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/unlocking-legal-frontiers-an-evening-with-ljmu-legal-academics-tickets-1985578882889?aff=oddtdtcreator

Alison Lui is author of  Financial stability and prudential regulation: A comparison between the regulators and central banks of the United Kingdom, the United States, Canada, Australia and Germany.