Al muddies the copyright issue

Although it needs an overhaul SA law offers strong protection

- Sadulla Karjiker

Proponents of the Copyright Amendment Bill (CAB) and the “big tech” companies developing artificial intelligence (AI) persistently attempt to convince us about the merits of the claimed benefits that will flow from the bill and AI.

They also do not appear to have concerns about making sweeping statements to support their claims. Maybe this should not come as a surprise - the most troubling provisions in the CAB will facilitate the same tech companies' use of copyright works in training their AI systems.

Copyright is still largely an arcane area of law, which is not understood by the public or even the majority of lawyers, who have never studied the subject or practised in the field.

Thus, it is difficult to discern whether statements made by, for example, journalists concerning copyright or the CAB are simply the consequence of ignorance (and a case of simply parroting the claims made by proponents of the CAB and the tech companies benefited by the proposals) or in support of the CAB (or big tech companies).

An article published recently in The Citizen claims that, in light of the use of copyright works in the training of AI systems, the CAB “can provide better digital rights protection” for South African authors.

If only that were true.

The article reported on the settlement of a copyright infringement claim brought by several authors, including Zakes Mda, against the tech company Anthropic concerning the use of their copyrighted works in training its AI systems. Anthropic agreed to pay $1.5 billion to settle the case with the authors.