Episode 79 Generative AI is a Crisis for Copyright Law with Ben Zhao

We are at a critical juncture when generative AI's impact on copyright law is being hotly debated. The ambiguity surrounding AI-generated works' authorship and ownership has led to numerous lawsuits against AI companies.

As of late 2024, there were at least 30 major copyright lawsuits against generative AI companies related to image copyright infringement.

NOW, more recently, there was a landmark ruling where Thomson Reuters won a significant victory in its copyright infringement lawsuit against Ross Intelligence, a legal AI startup. Ross Intelligence, which eventually shuttered its doors because of legal costs, was found to have infringed Thomson Reuters' copyright by using their proprietary headnotes and structure to train its AI-powered legal research tool.

Professor Ben Zhao is a Neubauer Professor of Computer Science at the University of Chicago. He and his team of researchers have developed two innovative tools, Glaze and Nightshade, to address the growing concerns surrounding copyright infringement and artistic exploitation by generative AI systems. These tools aim to protect artists' intellectual property and combat the unauthorized use of their work in AI training datasets.

Zhao's tools offer artists a means to safeguard their creations and livelihoods in a time where AI systems can replicate artistic styles with increasing accuracy. Ben Zhao was named to the Time magazines TimeAI 100 List in 2024 in recognition of his contributions in the field that included Glaze and Nightshade.

We are excited to welcome Ben Zhao to speak to us about Glaze and Nightshade, his motivation for spearheading these initiatives and what the broader implications are for a rapidly evolving technology that has the continues to disrupt our current laws and challenge our systems and our society