One of the great controversies of generative AI since its massive irruption has been the use of material protected by copyright to train their language models. A situation that has even led to lawsuits and strong discussions about the limits of the laboratories in charge of its development. But Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, seems to have a possible solution between his eyebrows: that platforms like ChatGPT pay you when they use your material.
The idea is interesting, to be sure, but how it could be implemented is still a mystery. For now, what the leader of the San Francisco startup said seems more like a declaration of intent to repel new regulatory or legal attacks, rather than an option of real application immediately.
It was Altman himself who recognized that in the future we could see versions of ChatGPT that are respectful of the intellectual property of others. During his presentation at Clark Atlanta University, he referred to his participation in a White House AI summit. There, the OpenAI leader discussed the regulation that could be applied to models like GPT-4 and the like.
First of all, he stressed his support for the implementation of laws that help people “know that they are interacting with artificial intelligence.” Although the most interesting position is related to applying safeguards so that content protected by copyright laws is not used without compensation.
“We’re trying to work on new models where if an AI system is using your content, or if it’s using your style, you get paid for that.”he explained. As we already said, it’s an interesting proposition, although it doesn’t necessarily mean we’ll see it soon in ChatGPT or other generative AIs.
A ChatGPT pro-copyright could be the next thing from OpenAI
That many of the most popular generative AIs have been trained on copyrighted material is not news. In a way, we could say that laboratories like OpenAI and Stability AI they enjoyed some impunity when developing their models. But the story changed when they became a worldwide rage.
Once apps like ChatGPT or Stable Diffusion reached a mass audience, it didn’t take long for the first copyright infringement claims to surface. copyright. The most notorious case has been that of Getty Images, since more than 12 million of its photographs were copied without permission.
Something similar happened at the time with Copilot, GitHub’s AI that can automatically generate code and now also has ChatGPT capabilities. A tool that has become very popular among programmers, but which has also been at the center of controversy for “stealing” proprietary code.
A conciliatory stance on copyright protection is a smart move on Sam Altman’s part. Generative AI evolves at an unbridled pace and that can also impact any type of regulation that attempts to apply to it. But the question seems to go beyond covering possible negative legal scenarios. Install idea from ChatGPT or other platforms as monetization tools for creators of original materialit can be really attractive for the future.