OpenAI Calls on U.S. Government to Let It Freely Use Copyrighted Material for AI Training

OpenAI, known for its ChatGPT chatbot, today submitted AI recommendations to the Trump administration, calling for deregulation and policies that give AI companies free rein to train models on copyrighted material in order to compete with China on AI development.

open ai new typeface
AI companies cannot freely innovate while having to comply with "overly burdensome state laws," according to OpenAI. The company claims that laws regulating AI are "easier to enforce" with domestic companies, imposing compliance requirements that "weaken the quality and level of training data available to American entrepreneurs." OpenAI suggests that the government provide "private sector relief" from 781+ AI-related bills introduced in various states.

OpenAI outlines a "copyright strategy" that would preserve "American AI models' ability to learn from copyrighted material." OpenAI argues that AI models should be able to be trained freely on copyrighted data, because they are "trained not to replicate works for consumption by the public" and thus align with the fair use doctrine. With its AI copyright laws, OpenAI says that the European Union has repressed AI innovation and investment.

OpenAI claims that if AI models are not provided with fair use access to copyrighted data, the "race for AI is effectively over" and "America loses." OpenAI asks that the government prevent "less innovative countries" from "imposing their legal regimes on American AI firms."

For AI data sharing, OpenAI suggests a tiered system that would see AI tech shared with countries that follow "democratic AI principles," while blocking access to China and limiting access to countries that might leak data to China. The company also suggests government investment in utilizing AI technology and building out AI infrastructure.

The use of copyrighted material for AI training has angered artists, journalists, writers, and other creatives who have had their work absorbed by AI. The New York Times, for example, has sued Microsoft and OpenAI for training AI models on news articles. Many AI tools assimilate and summarize content from news sites, driving users away from primary sources and oftentimes providing incorrect information. Image generation engines like Dall-E and Midjourney have been trained on hundreds of millions images scraped from the internet, leading to lawsuits.

OpenAI has submitted its proposals to the Office of Science and Technology Policy for consideration during the development of a new AI Action Plan that is meant to "make people more productive, more prosperous, and more free." The full text is available on OpenAI's website.

Note: Due to the political or social nature of the discussion regarding this topic, the discussion thread is located in our Political News forum. All forum members and site visitors are welcome to read and follow the thread, but posting is limited to forum members with at least 100 posts.

Tag: OpenAI

Popular Stories

iOS 18

Here Are Apple's Full iOS 18.5 Release Notes

Tuesday May 6, 2025 2:17 pm PDT by
Apple today seeded the release candidate version of iOS 18.5 to developers and public beta testers, giving us a look at the final version of the update that will be provided to the public next week. With the release candidate, Apple provided release notes, so we have a more complete look at the new features that are included in the update, including those that weren't found during the beta...
siri glow

iPhone Users Now Able to Submit Claims in $95 Million Siri Spying Lawsuit

Wednesday May 7, 2025 11:40 am PDT by
If you owned a Siri-compatible device and had an accidental Siri activation between September 17, 2014 and December 31, 2024, you could be eligible for a payment from Apple as part of a class action lawsuit settlement. Apple in January agreed to pay $95 million to settle a class action lawsuit involving Siri spying accusations, and a website to distribute the funds has now been set up and...
iPhone 17 Pro Blue Feature Tighter Crop

iPhone 17: What's New With the Cameras

Friday May 2, 2025 3:52 pm PDT by
We've still got months to go before the new iPhone 17 models come out, but a combination of dummy models and leaks have given us some insight into what we can expect in terms of camera changes. Apple is adding new camera features, and changing the design of the camera bump for some models. You might be skeptical of dummy models, but over the years, they've proven to be a highly accurate...
iOS 18

Apple Says iOS 18.5 Coming Soon, Here is What's New

Monday May 5, 2025 8:19 am PDT by
In its press release for the new Pride Band today, Apple said that iOS 18.5 is "upcoming," following more than a month of beta testing. We expect the iOS 18.5 Release Candidate to be released this week, and this should be the final beta version, barring any last-minute bugs or changes. The software update should then be released to the general public next week. iOS 18.5 is a relatively...
Nineth iOS 19 Feature

iOS 19 Beta is a Month Away With These New Features for Your iPhone

Thursday May 8, 2025 7:37 am PDT by
The first iOS 19 beta is just one month away, and there are already many new features and changes that are expected with it. Apple should seed the first iOS 19 beta to developers immediately following the WWDC 2025 keynote, which is scheduled for Monday, June 9. Following beta testing, the update should be released to the general public in September. Below, we recap the key iOS 19 rumors...
Foldable iPhone 2023 Feature Homescreen

Apple's Foldable iPhone Display Tech May Set New Industry Standard

Thursday May 8, 2025 3:29 am PDT by
Apple's upcoming foldable iPhone will feature a new type of display panel developed by Samsung that has never been used in a foldable product, claims a source with links to Apple's supply chain. According to the account yeux1122 on the Korean Naver blog, the foldable iPhone will use a custom display process for which Apple will hold branding trademark rights, and that meets Apple's stringent ...
Foldable iPhone 2023 Feature Homescreen

Foldable iPhone Said to Have Two Key Advantages

Monday May 5, 2025 6:41 am PDT by
Apple plans to release its first foldable iPhone next year, according to several reporters and analysts who cover the company. In his Power On newsletter today, Bloomberg's Mark Gurman said the foldable iPhone will offer two key advantages over other foldable smartphones. First, he said the foldable iPhone will have a "nearly invisible" crease when unfolded. This means the device's...
AirPods Pro 3 Mock Feature

AirPods Pro 3 Just Months Away – Here's What We Know

Tuesday April 29, 2025 1:30 am PDT by
Despite being more than two years old, Apple's AirPods Pro 2 still dominate the premium wireless‑earbud space, thanks to a potent mix of top‑tier audio, class‑leading noise cancellation, and Apple's habit of delivering major new features through software updates. With AirPods Pro 3 widely expected to arrive in 2025, prospective buyers now face a familiar dilemma: snap up the proven...

Top Rated Comments

NT1440 Avatar
8 weeks ago
Seriously, **** these guys. They’re just trying to build a plagiarism machine to threaten the labor workforce to “know their place”.

This is the corporate rebound from workers discovering their power in the COVID days…
Score: 60 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Aleh Avatar
8 weeks ago
This AI garbage seriously needs to be regulated MORE. The damn audacity to cry for deregulation is insane. I hope they all go bankrupt as soon as possible.
Score: 52 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Fuzzball84 Avatar
8 weeks ago
This is the hideous side of AI.

That they aren’t just generated by a team of tech whiz and a company with billions of dollars of investment. But they are generated from the real work of hundreds of millions of people from the beginning of recorded history. Work that without which such systems would never perform anywhere near as good as they are able to.

And now those companies want to ride over the copyrights and protections of that work, for no good reason other than it would be too burdensome and time consuming to do so.

How can we trust such companies if this is the morals they demonstrate? How do we trust that AI is for the benefit of society, when they disregard the rules that protect that same society?
Score: 48 Votes (Like | Disagree)
ProbablyDylan Avatar
8 weeks ago
While I generally find copyright law detestable and in need of reform, f*ck OpenAI and Sam Altman. If you can't afford to license material with your billions of investor money, you shouldn't use it.

In a perfect world we all play by the same rules. If you don't like them you push for systemic change, not exceptions.
Score: 38 Votes (Like | Disagree)
xander49x Avatar
8 weeks ago
Welcome to capitalism at its worst, they should put more regulations on AI to put these companies in check.
Score: 37 Votes (Like | Disagree)
jz0309 Avatar
8 weeks ago

AI companies cannot freely innovate while having to comply with "overly burdensome state laws," according to OpenAI.
yea, the law is not for us ... there's a reason to boycott them, them being openai ...
With the current admin, not sure what the outcome will be ...
Score: 28 Votes (Like | Disagree)