> Problematic though copyright laws are, I see no world where all those protections go away any time soon, and so if the courts don't agree to protect copyright

> Problematic though copyright laws are, I see no world where all those protections go away any time soon, and so if the courts don't agree to protect copyright already in this scenario, then it will eventually be legislated to make that happen. AI consuming copyrighted data and producing an output has to be considered a derivative work (or indeed, the model itself will be considered a derivative work) or IP protections are effectively broken. There's a headline out today about several ex-Google Brain engineers, including a co-author of “Attention Is All You Need”, setting up shop in Tokyo. [1] That's not a coincidence. > Amid rising questions about the fairness and legality of using publicly available information to train AI models, Japan affirmed that machine learning engineers can use any data they find. > What’s new: A Japanese official clarified that the country’s law lets AI developers train models on works that are protected by copyright. > How it works: In testimony before Japan’s House of Representatives, cabinet minister Keiko Nagaoka explained that the law allows machine learning developers to use copyrighted works whether or not the trained model would be used commercially and regardless of its intended purpose. [2] IANAL so don't know what the implications of this are when it comes to cross-border copyright enforcement. It's hard to imagine Japan rolling back this type of legal safe harbor. It's a boon for attracting AI startups from elsewhere and giving the local tech industry a competitive boost. What's to stop other venues looking to grow their tech industry to do something similar? And if they do, would it create a race to the bottom type of dynamic at the expense of copyright holders? [1] https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-08-17/ex-google-stability-ai-researchers-launch-ai-startup-that-takes-cues-from-fish#xj4y7vzkg https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-08-17/ex-google... [2] https://www.deeplearning.ai/the-batch/japan-ai-data-laws-explained/ https://www.deeplearning.ai/the-batch/japan-ai-data-laws-exp...