Clifford Chance

Intellectual Property

What's wrong with this picture? AI-created images and content: copyright ownership and infringement

Countless social media posts, images and articles have been generated using AI tools such as ChatGPT, Stable Diffusion and Dall-E. But who – if anyone – owns the copyright in the outputs, and do the tools themselves infringe copyright? Our IP & Tech//Digital teams take a deep dive into the issues and the recent infringement claims.

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Artificial intelligence

EU AI Act: Final negotiations can begin after European Parliament vote

On 14 June 2023, the European Parliament voted to adopt its negotiating position on the proposed EU regulation on AI (AI Act). This is another major step towards the adoption of the proposed AI Act, undoubtedly one of the most important and anticipated pieces of legislation of the past few years.In this article (also available as a PDF), we examine some of the key changes introduced by the European Parliament.

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Artificial intelligence

All Eyes on AI: More guidance for U.S. employers on the use and risks of AI in hiring decisions

On May 24, 2023, the U.S. Equal Opportunity Employment Commission issued a paper, "Select Issues: Assessing Adverse Impact in Software, Algorithms, and Artificial Intelligence Used in Employment Selection Procedures Under Title VII of the Civil Rights Action of 1964," with the aim of continuing to provide further guidance to employers on the uses and potential misuses of algorithmic decision-making tools.

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Intellectual Property

AI-Generated Music and Copyright

When a track by artist "Ghostwriter" was uploaded and then promptly removed from streaming services in April, it was the latest example of one of 2023's most astonishing trends. The track 'heart on my sleeve' sounded like it was sung by two of the world's biggest stars, Drake and The Weeknd. In fact, it was actually someone who had used an AI tool to make his voice sound like theirs.

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Artificial intelligence

China moves to further regulate artificial intelligence – what businesses should know

On 11 April 2023, the Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC) published a consultation draft (the Administrative Measures for Generative Artificial Intelligence Services (the GenAI Measures)) to regulate the rapidly developing field of generative artificial intelligence (AI). This article highlights some key questions for businesses that are involved in the use or development of AI within or outside China.

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Artificial intelligence

The intellectual property and data protection implications of training generative AI

The models underlying popular generative AI tools such as ChatGPT, Bard and DALL-E are being trained on vast amounts of data sourced from the internet. The use of such data in the training of GPT and similar models therefore gives rise to intellectual property and data protection risks on a significantly augmented scale.

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Artificial intelligence

Financial services can light the way for context-specific AI regulation

Given the rapid uptake in the use of artificial intelligence (AI) including machine learning (ML) technologies in the financial services sector, the sector and its regulators have enjoyed a head start in exploring and seeking to navigate the issues that arise. The sector is therefore well-positioned to demonstrate how a pro-innovation, context-specific and risk-based approach to regulating AI can succeed.

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Artificial intelligence

ICYMI: The U.S. Government Launches AI Accountability Consultation

On April 11, President Biden's administration quietly dropped a consultation that might lead to a slow revolution in the U.S.'s approach to AI regulation. The Department of Commerce's National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) published a request for comment (RFC) on how to achieve "trustworthy AI." The comments window is open until June 12, after which the NTIA will draft a report on AI policy development

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Cyber

Data poisoning and AI transparency

In this article, part of behavioural insights practice Canvas8’s 2024 Expert Outlook – an annual report helping businesses to understand and navigate behavioural change in the year ahead – Herbert Swaniker, a senior lawyer at Clifford Chance, charts the new challenges for cyber security.

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Artificial intelligence

Trouble in the cockpit? Popular AI tool faces class action lawsuit

A class action against GitHub Copilot has been filed alleging violations of the rights, including copyright, of authors that have created or contributed to codebases stored as public repositories on GitHub.

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Data

Clearview AI appeals the ICO's monetary penalty notice (over £7.5 million fine) and enforcement notice (order to delete certain data)

The First-Tier Tribunal (Information Rights) (FTT) heard Clearview's appeal in November 2022. The appeal outcome is expected imminently.

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Artificial intelligence

Developers can now let an AI assistant write code for them - but what are the IP implications?

A year after its announcement, GitHub Copilot was launched last month to the public at large. The tool promises to "fundamentally change the nature of software development" by providing AI-based coding suggestions, saving developers time and effort. What are the intellectual property implications for those who build or buy software created using Copilot? .

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Artificial intelligence

Artificial Intelligence M&A and Fundraisings in 2023

AI has quickly become one of the biggest stories for Technology investors so far this year, snowballing steadily since the launch of OpenAI's ChatGPT at the end of 2022. The arrival of 'generative AI' that can produce new content (text-based responses to queries, images, audio, video and even code) marks a new and exciting phase in the development of mainstream AI applications. The starting gun has been fired for a race to capture the market.

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Real estate

Digital Twins: Legal Considerations

Demand for precise virtual modelling of real-world assets is gaining momentum, especially in the construction industry. What legal risks and challenges should companies expect to face? A digital twin is an exact virtual model of a real-world asset which enables interaction with that asset, be it a physical object (such as a building or jet engine), a system (such as a piece of computer networking architecture) or a process.

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Artificial intelligence

Managing AI in an evolving legal landscape webinar

In this webinar our experts: examined recent legal developments in a number of jurisdictions; considered key issues affecting the successful deployment and management of AI and machine learning; looked ahead to expected changes to relevant regulatory regimes; and discussed what businesses can do to prepare.

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Artificial intelligence

Employing AI: Artificial Intelligence in the US recruitment and hiring process

Is federal regulation on the horizon ?

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Rollout of autonomous vehicles: UK government plans for a legislative framework

The UK government has announced plans to develop a new legislative framework to allow for the wider rollout of autonomous vehicles (AVs) on UK roads by 2025. We look at the legal proposals in more detail and the related ethical considerations raised by the Centre for Data Ethics and Innovation (CDEI) in its report on Responsible Innovation in Self-Driving Vehicles.

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Intellectual Property

EPO rules only humans can be inventors – another blow to the DABUS patents

This latest case shows at least when it comes to patent inventorship, as things stand, humans are still the "measure of all things".

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