OpenAI is finally joining the growing list of companies developing AI models that will protect its users from copyright infringement. However, the company will not be offering blanket protection for all its products compared to other AI companies.
You Might Not Be Included in the Protection
Before you go around creating content using CharGPT products without thinking about the consequences, it's important to note that not all of them are included in OpenAI's new protection policy against copyright infringement.
The new program includes Copyright Shield, wherein the company will pay the legal fees that are demanded from its users. Specifically, it's for customers who use the generally available features of ChatGPT Enterprise, as reported by Tech Crunch.
Unfortunately for others who use OpenAI's other products and services, the protection against intellectual property claims is limited. It does not apply to the free versions of ChatGPT, as well as ChatGPT Plus.
OpenAI says that it is committed to protecting its customers with built-in copyright safeguards in its systems. It also claims that it only takes training data from public domains, which is likely what inspires confidence that it is able to defend its users from copyright claims.
Of course, that's an entirely different issue. There are several creators who claim that OpenAI stole their copyrighted materials and used them to train their AI models. By extension, the generated content from its AI tools may reflect these copyrighted works.
Other Companies Who Offer Protection
OpenAI is already late to the party of companies that provide AI tools and services that offer protection from legal issues. Microsoft has also stepped up stating that it will protect Copilot users from infringement cases and pay the settlement fees.
The new policy called Copilot Copyright Commitment is an expansion of Microsoft's existing intellectual property indemnification coverage, as reported by Ars Technica. This provides confidence for its customers as they can use its AI tools without fear of being taken to court.
"As customers ask whether they can use Microsoft's Copilot services and the output they generate without worrying about copyright claims, we are providing a straightforward answer: yes, you can, and if you are challenged on copyright grounds, we will assume responsibility for the potential legal risks involved."
Adobe is also doing the same thing as it believes that its own model, Firefly AI, is not trained on copyrighted materials meaning that it will not generate anything similar to protected works. After all, it has its own collection of images that can be used to train its AI model.
As mentioned in Morningstar: "We're trying to use a model that doesn't contain IP [intellectual property], so it's safe for the commercial user, so it cannot generate anything that could infringe," Adobe Generative AI Head Alexandru Costin says.
He added that while others see avoiding intellectual properties as a limitation, the company sees it as a strength since it enables users to be confident that they can't be sued for infringing, which is also the selling point for companies that offer protection.
