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Senators Josh Hawley (R-MO) and Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) launched a invoice Monday that may give people the appropriate to sue AI corporations that use their private knowledge or inventive works with out consent.
They launched the AI Accountability and Personal Data Protection Act following a Senate Judiciary subcommittee listening to during which Hawley accused OpenAI, Meta, and different corporations of mass copyright infringement. In a press release, the senator referred to as it “the largest intellectual property theft in American history.”
Holding tech corporations accountable and liable
Several high-profile authors, together with John Grisham and George R.R. Martin, have filed lawsuits asserting that AI corporations used their work with out authorization. Other AI builders, resembling Meta Platforms and Stability AI, additionally face litigation over the datasets used to coach different giant language fashions. OpenAI, nevertheless, has defended its use of copyrighted knowledge for AI coaching below the honest use doctrine.
“AI corporations are robbing the American individuals blind whereas leaving artists, writers, and different creators with zero recourse,’’ Hawley mentioned in a press release. “It’s time for Congress to present the American employee their day in court docket to guard their private knowledge and inventive works.”
In a separate assertion, Blumenthal mentioned, “Tech companies must be held accountable — and liable legally — when they breach consumer privacy, collecting, monetizing or sharing personal information without express consent. Consumers must be given rights and remedies — and legal tools to make them real — not relying on government enforcement alone.”
Provisions of the invoice
The proposed invoice would:
- Prohibit AI corporations from utilizing copyrighted content material for coaching with out permission.
- Grant people the appropriate to sue if their private knowledge or inventive work is used or distributed with out consent.
- Require corporations to obviously disclose which third events will obtain knowledge if entry is granted.
- Impose vital monetary penalties for violations.
This just isn’t the primary time Hawley and Blumenthal have teamed up on points associated to Big Tech. During the final Congress, the senators launched a bipartisan framework to use guardrails round AI to guard customers.
Curious how California plans to guide the U.S. in AI oversight? Explore our deep dive into the state’s daring new AI coverage blueprint and what it means for Big Tech.
