Tech Lobbying Group Launches Campaign for AI Fair Use Rights

Technology lobbying group Chamber of Progress has launched a campaign to support fair use protections for generative AI training and output.

The goal of the Generate and Create campaign is to highlight the creative benefits of generative AI and defend the rights of companies like OpenAI to scrape the internet for data to train their AI models, a practice that has come under increasing scrutiny by copyright holders.

There are no laws currently prohibiting the use of internet scraping for AI training. Fair use applies protections for the use of copyright materials in the creation of new “transformative” works. However, several newspapers, including the New York Times have taken legal action against OpenAI, alleging its data practices constitute copyright infringement.

The campaign argues that generative AI outputs are non-infringing and that the technology lowers the barrier to entry for creating art.

The Chamber of Progress intends to advocate for or against state and federal legislation related to generative AI through public affairs campaigns to showcase the positive impacts of generative AI. The group is currently seeking a director to lead its lobbying efforts

"With AI, anyone can instantly create custom designs," the group said, advocating for registering copyright protections for AI-generated works with meaningful human involvement while opposing extending copyright to styles or ideas, which they believe would stifle creativity.

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“Generative AI is unleashing a wave of creativity, enabling new forms of expression, and lowering barriers to participating in creative work,” said Adam Kovacevich, Chamber of Progress’ founder, CEO and the former head of public policy at Google. “In Congress, state houses, and the courts, there is much work to do defending access to generative AI and the gains it is delivering for creators and consumers. Generate & Create will be a steadfast defender of fair use and a champion for this empowering new technology.”

The group said it will also file amicus briefs and litigation to support related legal cases.

The mascot for the campaign was even generated using Midjourney, an AI-powered image generation tool that’s the subject of an ongoing lawsuit from artists over claims its AI training practices infringed on the copyrighted works.

Amazon, Google, Uber and Meta are listed among the companies to have previously supported the Chamber of Progress efforts. Many of its partners are developing and commercializing their own AI applications and services but do not have a vote on the lobby group’s positions.

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Businesses offering AI services are now largely promising not to use user data to train their models.

To avoid further lawsuits, companies like OpenAI and Google are securing licenses to content, paying cash in return for access to troves of data from sources including Reddit, News Corp and Stack Overflow.