Generative AI and Copyright Policy From the Creator-User’s Perspective

Derek Slater is a founding partner of Proteus Strategies, a boutique tech policy strategy and advocacy firm. He has worked actively in online media and copyright policy issues for over two decades. Shutterstock Over the last year, generative artificial intelligence (AI) tools have become increasingly accessible to people, allowing people to create different types of media in new ways. It’s also catalyzed new debates about the future of creativity and copyright. Some artists and content creators worry that these tools will not only generate works that threaten their livelihoods, but also that they were developed in ways that unfairly exploit their original works. The debate thus tends to take on a frame familiar to discussions of copyright and digital technology for the last several decades – it pits artists and content creators versus technology developers. That frame is far too limited. After all, copyright’s purpose is to promote creativity and knowledge sharing for the public’s benefit, which demands a consideration of technology’s users as well. More specifically, many artists and content creators are users and beneficiaries of these tools, and the way these tools are regulated will impact them, too. The fact that these creator-users have interests at stake too doesn’t dictate a specific policy outcome in all cases, and, indeed, the umbrella term “generative AI” hides that there are a wide variety of tools and uses. But their interests can and should inform how we think about copyright policy in this context, and that’s what I elaborate on below….Generative AI and Copyright Policy From the Creator-User’s Perspective