On May 18, 2023, the U.S. Supreme Court issued its opinion in Andy Warhol Foundation For The Visual Arts, Inc. v. Goldsmith. The case is very significant because it helps to define the scope and proper application of “the fair use doctrine” in U.S. copyright law. The opinion has also stirred a lot of debate about its potential applicability to AI systems, especially their training sets and outputs. For example, in a recent panel discussion hosted by the U.S. Copyright Office, a number of participants asserted that the Warhol case mandates that the unauthorized ingestion of third-party copyrighted materials will not fall under the copyright law’s fair use doctrine. However, the debate on this issue is robust and ongoing.
The link below is to an article in which Gary Rinkerman, a CARE Senior Fellow, is quoted regarding the general impact of the Warhol case. Gary is also part of CARE’s study of AI systems’ Terms of Use and security implications, and he has provided “best practices” to companies dealing with AI, alone and in combination with open source ingestion materials.