‘Please regulate AI:' Artists push for U.S. copyright reforms but tech industry says not so fast

Country singers, romance novelists, video game artists and voice actors are appealing to the U.S. government for relief — as soon as possible — from the threat that artificial intelligence poses to their livelihoods. But, Perlmutter asks, as humans feed content into AI systems and give instructions to influence what comes out, “is there a point at which there’s enough human involvement in controlling the expressive elements of the output that the human can be considered to have contributed authorship?” That’s one question the Copyright Office has put to the public. “I sincerely hope you can stop this practice of thievery.” Airing some of the same AI concerns that fueled this year’s Hollywood strikes, television showrunner Lilla Zuckerman said her industry should declare war on what is “nothing more than a plagiarism machine” before Hollywood is “coopted by greedy and craven companies who want to take human talent out of entertainment.” The music industry is also threatened, said Nashville-based country songwriter Marc Beeson, who’s penned tunes for Carrie Underwood and Garth Brooks. Beeson said AI has potential to do good but “in some ways, it’s like a gun — in the wrong hands, with no parameters in place for its use, it could do irreparable damage to one of the last true American art forms.” While most commenters were individuals, their concerns were echoed by big music publishers as well as author groups and news organizations including the New York Times and The Associated Press. Bond said she agrees that “fair use encompasses the right to learn from books,” but Google Books obtained legitimate copies held by libraries and institutions, whereas many AI developers are scraping works of writing through “outright piracy.” Perlmutter said this is what the Copyright Office is trying to help sort out.