Equitable Legal Remedies and the Existential Threat to Generative AI

Abstract

Generative AI programs like ChatGPT and Midjourney can produce text, images, and video because their models have been trained on vast amounts of books, pictures, art, and other media found on the internet. Training a large language model like ChatGPT, for instance, to “learn” patterns and relationships in billions of words allows these models to produce written text responsive to prompts. But these models have trained on digital information like novels and original art without obtaining permission. Unsurprisingly, the release of these generative AI tools has already prompted lawsuits by individuals and companies alleging that the use of their artistic works in the development of these models violates copyright law. Whether reliance on this type of training data violates copyright, and whether the outputs based on the training data constitute infringing derivative works are open and difficult questions. But these copyright claims also raise a separate issue: can plaintiffs seek remedies that would destroy generative AI programs?

Keywords: copyright, remedies, generative AI, artificial intelligence, AI

JEL Classification: K2