You may feed information into artificial intelligence (AI), but this may not necessarily grant you intellectual property rights in that information or the content generated. AI technology is advancing quicker than the law can come into effect. Nonetheless, disputes arising from AI are slowly being raised before the courts, offering some guidance as to who exactly owns the IP in inputs and outputs: the human user or the AI.
What is Artificial Intelligence?
Artificial Intelligence (AI) is a field of computer science. Recently, it has gained a lot of attention with the release of generative AI models, such as ChatGPT and Bard, that are disrupting the business environment by taking prompts from human users and producing content within seconds.
Generative AI works by analysing pre-existing datasets (also known as “training”) and generating responses based on identified patterns. Various industries are utilising this technology, from healthcare to finance. However, businesses should exercise caution in relying purely on AI to generate their work.
What is Intellectual Property?
Intellectual property (IP) refers to the legal rights that protect the creative works or innovations of humans. It gives people and businesses the right to protect their creations legally, preventing others from benefiting or using their ideas without permission and ultimately adding significant value.
Continue reading this article below the formIntellectual Property Ownership in Inputs
Generative AI relies on users providing information and data to produce responses. However, in doing so, are you giving up the IP in your inputs? Human-generated inputs used by AI are likely to be protected by copyright. However, this may vary depending on the AI provider and their terms and conditions of use. For instance, their terms may include an assignment of rights in the user’s inputs.
Businesses should, therefore, be careful of the licence they grant AI providers to the IP in their inputs and how they can use them. As discussed above, most generative AI models are “trained” on previous inputs from users to learn and analyse patterns that allow them to generate responses. Therefore, AI providers will typically require users to grant a licence for them to use inputs for the purposes of training the AI model. Users can often opt out of this by selecting the relevant option when setting up an account or in their account settings.
Intellectual Property Ownership in Outputs
Under Australian Copyright law, there can be copyright in an original work where the author is a “qualified person”. This means the person is an Australian citizen or resident. On this basis, AI cannot be the owner of any outputs it generates.
However, it is essential to note that AI technology advances faster than the law. Therefore, much uncertainty surrounds who owns the IP in AI-generated outputs. Notwithstanding this, copyright protection is unlikely to apply unless there is a human “author” who has applied some “creative spark”, “independent intellectual effort”, or “skill and judgement” without copying from another work.
Intellectual Property Infringements
When training AI models on pre-existing data, there is a risk that they generate responses using inputs protected by copyright, often without authorisation.
Therefore, without authorisation from the copyright owner, any outputs that incorporate or copy a copyrighted work without permission will likely infringe that copyright. This means that someone using such an output is also likely to infringe copyright.
Therefore, while AI can be a useful tool to start a document, you should refrain from relying upon or using it in its generated form. Instead, you should use AI-generated documents for inspiration.
This fact sheet outlines your rights and obligations as an AI artist regarding intellectual property and copyright.
Key Takeaways
Artificial intelligence (AI) is quickly gaining popularity among businesses for its ability to streamline the production of documents, correspondence and other written work. However, businesses need to understand who owns the intellectual property in this work, especially when using it for business purposes. For instance, some AI providers may require users to grant a licence to use their inputs to train their technology. This raises concerns surrounding the confidentiality and privacy of the information you input into the AI.
As it currently stands, Australian law also does little to definitively say who owns the intellectual property in AI-generated work. It is likely that no one owns the copyright in the work as AI is not a human and, therefore, cannot own the copyright. Furthermore, for the user to have copyright, they must have applied some creativity, independent intellectual effort, skill, and judgement. Ultimately, businesses must ensure they understand all the risks associated with relying on generative AI in their operations and the legal implications it may have, specifically concerning intellectual property.
If you need advice on using AI for your business, our experienced AI lawyers can assist as part of our LegalVision membership. For a low monthly fee, you will have unlimited access to lawyers to answer your questions and draft and review your documents. Call us today on 1300 544 755 or visit our membership page.
We appreciate your feedback – your submission has been successfully received.
