A group of high-profile conservative voices is calling on President Donald Trump to ditch a controversial policy that has allowed tech titans to train their artificial intelligence models on copyrighted materials without paying for them, according to a new report.
Thirteen top conservatives, including former Trump advisor Steve Bannon and conservative strategist Mike Davis, penned a letter to Attorney General Pam Bondi and Michael Kratsios, director of Trump’s Office of Science and Technology Policy, calling on the administration to revise its stance on the “fair use” doctrine.
The letter was first reported on by The New York Post.
“Big Tech says it is ‘fair use’ under our federal copyright laws for them to steal and profit from every creative work in America to ‘train’ or otherwise benefit their artificial intelligence machines,” the letter reads. “‘We must steal like China to compete against China,’ they essentially argue. This is un-American and absurd.”
“We must compete and win the global AI race the American way—by ensuring we protect creators, children, conservatives, and communities,” the letter continued.
Trump has previously voiced support for Big Tech’s stance on fair use. In June, Trump said during an AI summit in Washington, D.C., that it would be “impractical” for tech companies to pay creators in order to train their systems, as it would give China an advantage over the U.S., according to a report by Variety.
“It is absurd to suggest that licensing copyrighted content is a financial hindrance to a $20 trillion industry spending hundreds of billions of dollars per year,” the letter added. “AI companies enjoy virtually unlimited access to financing. In a free market, businesses pay for the inputs they need. Imagine if AI CEOs claimed they needed free access to semiconductors, energy, researchers, and developers to build their products. They would be laughed out of their boardrooms.”
Read the entire report by clicking here.
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