Tech giants are going out of their way to prove that they are not breaking any laws amidst the constant backlash firms are getting for using copyrighted content to train AI models. Along with Adobe and Microsoft, Google is also confident enough to take responsibility for any legal issues that come with the use of its AI tools.
Google Will Protect Its Users from Lawsuits
With tech companies that are beginning to add AI services under their belt, more issues emerge regarding the unconsented use of intellectual property. While Microsoft, Adobe, and Google can afford to fight a lawsuit, their users might not have the same luxury.
To inspire confidence among its customers, Google is also volunteering itself as a shield when a copyright infringement lawsuit comes their customers' way upon using the search engine giant's AI tools to generate content, as reported by The Verge.
After all, the company is slowly expanding its AI capabilities across several products such as Google Docs, Gmail, Google Slides, and Google Meet. It also covers Duet AI in Google Cloud, Vertex AI Search, Vertex AI Conversation, Vertex AI Text Embedding API, and more.
Despite the extensive list of services, apps, and tools that are included under the protective umbrella, the Google Bard search tool was not included. Other than that, Google says it will "assume responsibility for the potential legal risks involved."
In the event that a user generates something similar to copyrighted work, the company will protect them given that they "didn't try to intentionally create or use generated output to infringe the rights of others."
On top of that, Google will also shoulder potential indemnification, meaning that the damage cost that a lawsuit demands will be paid for by the company, provided that it is within the guidelines. It was mentioned that it's not a new protection but just a reiteration to reassure customers.
It Might Not Cover All Services
While this serves as good news for people who intend to use Google's AI services to create their own content, the fact that Google Bard wasn't listed as part of the services that grant automatic legal protection is not inspiring confidence.
This becomes more concerning as Google is slowly rolling out its new SGE feature, wherein users will be able to generate AI images using the search bar. Typing in the search field will be the equivalent of entering a text prompt for AI image generators.
Using Google's Imagen, the search engine will produce four AI photos that users can choose from and refine, as per the company blog post, which they can then export to Google Drive and download the images through the app.
If the search engine does generate an image that is similar to copyrighted work, it might spell trouble for the user and they might not have the kind of protection that other Google AI tools offer. However, it is still at an experimental stage, and the company might actually include it under its legal protection.
