Judge Rules AI Can't Be Copyrighted

Plus a call for AI nationalization

Author

Nathaniel Whittemore
August 21, 2023

The AI Breakdown First Five - Monday August 21, 2023

Today on the First Five:

  • 5. Is AI the Latest Front in the Culture War?

  • 4. The Authors Whose Books Were Used for Training

  • 3. Singapore’s Workers Adopting AI the Fastest

  • 2. The Coming Calls for AI Nationalization

  • 1. Judge Affirms AI Art Can’t Be Copyrighted

5. Is AI the Latest Front in the Culture War?

The one thing stronger than advanced AI appears to be America’s never-ending culture war. A new piece in the Guardian examines the ways in which fears of AI being trained to be woke has become a major theme in the politics and presidential campaigns of the US Right.

‘Very wonderful, very toxic’: how AI became the culture war’s new frontier

While the far right claims artificial intelligence has become too ‘woke’, experts argue it’s not a sentient being with its own viewpoints

www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/aug/21/artificial-intelligence-culture-war-woke-far-right

4. The Authors Whose Books Were Used for Training

Right now Sarah Silverman is suing the big AI labs claiming that they trained their models on her books without permission. A new Atlantic article claims to have seen part of the training dataset for Meta’s Llama that includes 170,000 titles from authors including Stephen King, James Patterson, and Michael Pollan. Ultimately it will be a question for courts about whether this is allowed in the future.

3. Singapore’s Workers Adopting AI the Fastest

Between 2016 and today, the number of workers in Singapore who added AI skills to their LinkedIn profile has increased by 20x. According to the new LinkedIn Future of Work report, that’s the fastest rate of skill diffusion of any country. (Although if one were cynical, one might ask whether people self-reporting skills on LinkedIn is perhaps not the best metric of true adoption).

2. The Coming Calls for AI Nationalization

Well that didn’t take long. A new op-ed in Politico argues that AI is powerful enough and significant enough that it should be nationalized by the Federal government. Interestingly, the argument isn’t from a policy wonk but from an AI entrepreneur. In unrelated but not totally dissimilar news, the UK is reportedly spending $100M on AI chip development (which many in the government don’t think is nearly enough).

1. Judge Affirms AI Art Can’t Be Copyrighted

A US district court judge has ruled that AI artwork can’t be copyrighted. Judge Beryl A. Howell said “human authorship is a bedrock requirement of copyright.” That said, she did note that new frontiers are coming and there are going to be challenging questions of how much human involvement is necessary. You can say that again.

BONUS: The Pursuit of AI Agents Continues

The Latest AI Breakdown Episodes

Thanks for reading! How did this edition hit you?

How was today's newsletter?

Login or Subscribe to participate in polls.

Signing off from the future’s past - NLW