Copyright Thicket and President Trump’s AI Training Data Solution
Patent – Patently-O 2025-07-28
Summary:
by Dennis Crouch
President Trump’s recent remarks at the White House AI summit signaled an important policy shift in the AI copyright debate. “Common sense” application of intellectual property rules should allow AI developers to train on books and articles without paying or negotiating a license for each one. The bottom line: requiring copyright licensing would hamper the US’s ability to have continued AI growth.
You can’t be expected to have a successful AI program when every single article, book, or anything else that you’ve read or studied, you’re supposed to pay for. Gee. I read a book. I’m supposed to pay somebody. And, you know, we we appreciate that, but you just can’t do it because it’s not doable. And if you’re going to try and do that, you’re not going to have a successful program.
The US continues to see AI development as a particular American national interest — both as the key to continued economic growth and for national security purposes. For Trump, China immediately comes to mind, with his statement “China’s not” paying for copyright. “And if you’re going to be beating China . . . you have to be able to play by the same set of rules.”
Although his suggestion here is that training data should be fair use, President Trump concludes that outputs should not be copied: “Of course, you can’t copy or plagiarize an article.