Ethical AI Training Organization retweetet
The reason it is so important that we introduce transparency laws over AI training data is that AI training is one of the only instances of mass copyright infringement that is mostly invisible to the rights holder.
Usually, when someone uses your copyrighted work commercially without permission, you can see it happening. Maybe they modify your picture and use it on a magazine cover; maybe they pirate your film and resell it; maybe they steal your melody and use it in their own song. In each case, the infringement is out there in the open. That means (i) you are unlikely to miss it, and (ii) it is easy to hold the perpetrators accountable in the courts.
AI training is different. It happens behind closed doors, and the result - the trained model - might not make the infringement obvious. Models trained on copyrighted work will sometimes output obviously copyrighted work, but, much of the time, the fact that your work has been used in training isn’t obvious. So people’s work has been copied and exploited for commercial purposes, but that copying is hidden.
This is why we need new laws requiring AI companies to reveal the training data they use. Training commercial AI models on copyrighted work without permission is straight-up illegal in some countries (e.g. the UK), and there are strong arguments it is illegal in many cases in others (e.g. the US). But rights holders can't defend themselves under the law if the use of their work is kept hidden.
The only reason these transparency laws aren't more widespread already is AI industry lobbying. Governments need to resist this, and introduce transparency requirements as a matter of urgency.
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