Generative AI’s Continuing Copyright Problems, an Essay in Memory of Suchir Balaji, 1998 - 2024
We recorded 5 claims from this post. 2 were checked against evidence. 3 can’t be checked. 4 more are held. Read the post at its source.
Claims from this post (5)
In the order they appear in the post. Each quotation is the speaker’s words in this post. A label such as “Supported” or “Can’t be checked” is the claim’s current assessment; its page has the evidence and the reasons.
Assessment: SupportedSaid
Observation
“OpenAI’s problems with text and copyright started to become especially clear a year ago, when the New York Times sued them, and showed how close some of the outputs could be to some of the stories on their website.”
Our reading: OpenAI's problems with text and copyright started to become especially clear a year ago, when the New York Times sued OpenAI and showed how close some of the outputs could be to some of the stories on its website.
No horizon Evidence as of
Limitation: A complaint establishes allegations and presented evidence, not a judgment of infringement.
Assessment: MixedSaid
Observation
“In January, in IEEE Spectrum, Reid Southen and I demonstrated similar issues in video generation software, such as Midjourney and Dall-E:”
Our reading: In January, in IEEE Spectrum, Marcus and Reid Southen demonstrated issues similar to the New York Times findings in what he called video generation software, such as Midjourney and Dall-E.
No horizon Evidence as of
Limitation: The mixed result turns on retaining the explicit word 'video'.
Assessment: Can’t be checkedSaid
Recommendation or value judgment
“The problems by now seem clear. Suchir was right to consider them.”
Our reading: The copyright problems by now seem clear, and Suchir Balaji was right to consider them.
No horizon
Qualifier: seem
Assessment: Can’t be checkedSaid
Recommendation or value judgment
“Society needs to do more to protect people like Suchir Balaji.”
Our reading: Society should do more to protect AI whistleblowers like Suchir Balaji.
No horizon
Assessment: Can’t be checkedSaid
Recommendation or value judgment
“It is unfortunate that CA SB-1047’s whistleblower protections were vetoed.”
Our reading: It is unfortunate that the whistleblower protections in California SB-1047 were vetoed.
No horizon
Held from this post (4)
These records did not pass every check, so nothing about them is published. Held is not a finding.
- The record does not meet the current rules. Our reading, not assessed: As of December 2024, generative AI's apparent copyright-infringement problem has not gone away.
- The record does not meet the current rules. Our reading, not assessed: Like earlier systems, Sora appears to produce uncreative, near-plagiaristic outputs at least some of the time.
- The two reviews reached different assessments. Our reading, not assessed: Image generation systems produced near-copies of commercial characters, such as Mario from the prompt 'Italian plumber', even when the character was not named.
- The criteria are ambiguous. Our reading, not assessed: OpenAI's Sora appears, like many earlier systems, to have been trained extensively on copyrighted material.