Why Isn't Google's "Generative AI Search" Copyright Theft?

https://twitter.com/ematt/status/1790476863430918574

by mdotk • 2 years ago

10 10 2 years ago

mdotk2• 2 years ago

I know that a lot of content on the web is rehashed itself, but many creators actually review products themselves, speak from first hard experience, research, etc.

The original knowledge has to come from someone human.

How can Google promote its "1 trillion facts" database of scrapped content and just use it to show answers to searchers alongside ads.

Seems like they are doing this without regard for much anything else because OpenAI is a new entrant and about to threaten their search empire?

zer00eyz• 2 years ago

"1 trillion facts"

https://www.techdirt.com/2006/08/08/turns-out-major-league-b...

You cant copyright facts. There is a legal argument to be made that an LLM is a reduction of copyright material into its underlying data (its vectors).

The only people who are going to win in this fight are the lawyers.

4death4• 2 years ago

Clearly there is a limit. Otherwise, you could circumvent all copyright by saying "The contents of Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban is <insert novel text here>". While technically a fact, it's protected by copyright.

pixl97• 2 years ago

Since when does original knowledge have to come from humans?

joegibbs• 2 years ago

Because facts aren't copyrightable.

I think it's good that Google Search is getting shaken up. There's too much useless blogspam put together by "SEO experts" that nobody actually reads or wants to read, and if it's going to be that or nothing but Reddit comments, then Reddit comments would be better.

This guy posts about nothing but how terrible Google HCU is. I'd be interested in knowing what kind of websites he works on boosting, and whether they actually have content that people want to read without needing meticulous SEO optimisation to achieve good results.

mdotk2• 2 years ago

To be fair, a lot of the content is opinion too.

But I see now on the facts point. Thanks

zero-sharp2• 2 years ago

There's plenty of instances where the content produced by chatbots isn't factual and is also based off of content that somebody else worked to produce.

verdverm2• 2 years ago

Derivative works are not copyright infringement. It's why sparknotes for books are possible

Why Isn't Google's "Generative AI Search" Copyright Theft?

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