United States of America: Opened consultation on Copyright Office inquiry into Artificial Intelligence and Copyright

On 30 August 2023, the United States Copyright Office announced the launch of an inquiry into copyright law and policy issues arising from the increasing use and development of artificial intelligence (“AI”) systems and opened a public consultation until 6 December 2023. In particular, the Office outlined the copyright policy challenges related to the use of AI, including the use of copyrighted materials to train AI models, determining whether AI-generated content can be copyrighted, potential legal consequences for infringing AI-generated works and handling AI-generated content that mimics human artistic styles. The Office aims to gather information regarding the process for collecting and using AI datasets, whether copyright owners should be compensated when their works are used, and what compensation systems might be viable. Additionally, the Office aims to obtain information regarding the preservation of records to identify training materials and how the information could be made accessible to copyright owners.