The copyright lawsuit brought against AI large-language models by Sarah Silverman and others has seen a portion of its claims dismissed by the judge—because the judge doesn’t see how the AI output is similar to the protected work. The judge said the claims may be amended, but the plaintiffs must argue how the AI’s output is “substantially similar to [copyrighted] works.”
This development isn’t surprising, given the throw-everything-at-the-wall-and-see-what-sticks approach of these lawsuits. The biggest and perhaps most important claim—that the copyrighted works were included in the training dataset for AI without permission—still stands. Learn more.
A different judge responded in a similar manner to artists who were among the first to bring lawsuits against AI companies; he said their claims were “defective in numerous respects.”
Meanwhile, last week saw the unexpected and dramatic firing of OpenAI’s CEO, Sam Altman, but he was reinstated late on Tuesday. Learn more.
Jane Friedman has spent her entire career working in the publishing industry, with a focus on business reporting and author education. Established in 2015, her newsletter The Bottom Line provides nuanced market intelligence to thousands of authors and industry professionals; in 2023, she was named Publishing Commentator of the Year by Digital Book World.
Jane’s expertise regularly features in major media outlets such as The New York Times, The Atlantic, NPR, The Today Show, Wired, The Guardian, Fox News, and BBC. Her book, The Business of Being a Writer, Second Edition (The University of Chicago Press), is used as a classroom text by many writing and publishing degree programs. She reaches thousands through speaking engagements and workshops at diverse venues worldwide, including NYU’s Advanced Publishing Institute, Frankfurt Book Fair, and numerous MFA programs.
