Key Points

  1. Generative AI tools pose significant intellectual property risks for companies, including copyright and trademark infringement.
  2. Companies must take steps to mitigate these risks, including ensuring proper licensure of training data and maintaining audit trails.
  3. Content creators and businesses must work together to develop strategies for protecting intellectual property rights in the age of generative AI.

The Risks of Generative AI

Generative AI tools can create remarkable visuals and text, but they also pose significant intellectual property risks for companies. The resulting products can be fascinating, but they can also infringe on copyright and trademark rights.

The capabilities of text generators are perhaps even more striking, as they write essays, poems, and summaries, and are proving adept mimics of style and form. However, they can take creative license with facts, which can lead to potential risks and liabilities.

Generative AI platforms are trained on data lakes and question snippets, which can include unlicensed works or copyrighted creations. This can lead to infringement and rights of use issues, uncertainty about ownership of AI-generated works, and questions about unlicensed content in training data.

At a Glance

Main CompanyStability AI
Developer of the Stable Diffusion image generator
Main ExecutiveUnknown
No executive mentioned in the article
OrganizationMuseum of Modern Art
Hosted an AI-generated installation
RegulatorUS Supreme Court
Considering a case related to AI-generated works
LocationNew York
Location of the Museum of Modern Art
CountryUSA
Country where the Supreme Court is located
IndustryTechnology
Industry related to generative AI
Key Product / ServiceStable Diffusion
Image generator developed by Stability AI
Key TechnologyGenerative AI
Technology used to create AI-generated works
Key RegulationCopyright Law
Regulation related to intellectual property rights

Where the Sides Stand

Getty

Position: Alleging improper use of its photos

Role in the story: Image licensing service

Motivation: Stated in the source

Stability AI

Position: Denying improper use of Getty's photos

Role in the story: Developer of the Stable Diffusion image generator

Motivation: Inferred

Navigating Intellectual Property Law

The Risks of Generative AI

Companies must take steps to mitigate the risks of generative AI, including ensuring proper licensure of training data and maintaining audit trails. This can involve licensing and compensating individuals who own the IP that developers seek to add to their training data.

Navigating Intellectual Property Law

The legal system is being asked to clarify the bounds of what is a 'derivative work' under intellectual property laws. The outcome of these cases is expected to hinge on the interpretation of the fair use doctrine.

Strategies for Mitigation

Strategies for Mitigation

Companies should require the creator's opt-in rather than opt-out. Developers should also work on ways to maintain the provenance of AI-generated content, which would increase transparency about the works included in the training data.

Content creators and businesses should work together to develop strategies for protecting intellectual property rights in the age of generative AI. This can involve proactively looking for their work in compiled datasets or large-scale data lakes, and monitoring digital and social channels for the appearance of works that may be derived from their own.

Risk & Opportunity Assessment

Commercial RiskMediumPotential infringement and liability for companies using generative AI tools
Competitive RiskLowNo significant competitive risks mentioned in the article
Regulatory RiskMediumRegulatory risks related to intellectual property law and generative AI
Reputation RiskLowNo significant reputation risks mentioned in the article
Technology DisruptionHighGenerative AI is a rapidly evolving technology that poses significant risks and opportunities
Commercial OpportunityMediumPotential opportunities for companies to develop and use generative AI tools in a compliant and responsible manner