Copyrights and the Downfall of the EU AI Act

While the Act certainly deserves compliments for both its pioneering nature and numerous thoughtful provisions aimed at the efficient and effective regulation of modern AI, it is not without its drawbacks. For instance, one of the most frequently cited issues is a remarkably weak protection of copyright holders from exploitation of their creative works by AI vendors that are building cash-generating AI models with unwarrantedly scraped content. Today, while numerous consulting companies and compliance boutiques energetically utilize AI chatbots to write countless articles about compliance with the EU AI Act, legal scholars and industry experts argue that the act gives copyright owners little to no protection at all. Some experts emphasize that the act leaves a “devastating loophole” for tech giants and AI vendors to exploit creative content without remunerating or even giving proper credit to the authors. In validation of this claim, a recent article in the Yale Journal of Law & Technology eloquently described the unprecedented lobbying efforts, orchestrated by tech conglomerates, to substantially alter the initial text of the act, virtually suppressing most liabilities of AI vendors, as well as depriving both AI consumers and creative content authors of any meaningful rights under the act.