Bipartisan Bill Aims to Protect Creators’ Rights in the Age of Generative AI

The bipartisan COPIED Act aims to protect journalists and artists from having their work used by AI models without consent.

Introducing standards for authenticating AI-generated content: The COPIED Act directs the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) to establish guidelines for proving the origin of content and detecting synthetic content:

• This includes methods like watermarking to authenticate the source of creative works.
• NIST will also develop security measures to prevent tampering with these authentication markers.

Requiring transparency and consent for AI use of creative content: Under the bill, AI tools used for generating journalistic or creative content must allow users to attach provenance information that cannot be removed:

• This ensures that the origin of the content is clearly labeled and traceable.
• Importantly, the Act prohibits this content from being used to train AI models without permission.

Empowering content owners to protect their intellectual property: The COPIED Act provides content creators, such as artists, broadcasters, and newspapers, with the ability to sue companies they believe have used their materials without authorization or altered authentication markers:

• State attorneys general and the Federal Trade Commission are also granted enforcement powers.
• The bill includes an exception allowing some security research involving the removal or tampering of content provenance information.

Industry support from key stakeholders: Several publishing and artists’ groups have applauded the introduction of the COPIED Act:

• SAG-AFTRA, the Recording Industry Association of America, the News/Media Alliance, and the Artist Rights Alliance are among the organizations voicing their support.
• They emphasize the need for transparency and accountability in the AI supply chain to protect creators’ rights to control the use of their likeness, voice, and persona.

Broader implications for AI regulation: The COPIED Act represents one piece of the Senate’s broader efforts to understand and regulate AI technology:

• It follows Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer’s AI roadmap, which outlined a framework for individual committees to develop targeted AI legislation.
• With sponsorship from high-ranking committee members, the COPIED Act has the potential to gain traction as part of a larger wave of AI-related bills in Congress.
• If passed, the bill could set important precedents for creator rights and intellectual property protection in the era of generative AI.