Microsoft’s AI Chief Believes That Content Shared On The Web Is ‘Freeware’ And It Is Completely Alright For The Company To Copy It

The AI expansion strategy of Microsoft might have been revealed by the company’s artificial intelligence head during an interview. Unfortunately, the executive might have spilled some details that content producers might not appreciate, as it takes a great deal of effort to curate and publish posts. Sadly, the software giant does not share the same views, as it believes that such content is required to train AI models effectively.

Microsoft’s AI CEO says that web content can be used to train AI models unless specified by the one who made the content

Speaking with CNBC’s Andrew Ross Sorkin at the Aspen Ideas Festival earlier this week, Microsoft’s Mustafa Suleyman implied in the following remarks that online content can be copied or reproduced, essentially labeling it ‘freeware.’ Assuming readers have understood the comments correctly, Suleyman pretty much states that when training AI models, it is alright to ‘steal’ someone else’s hard work.

“With respect to content that is already on the open web, the social contract of that content since the 90s has been that it is fair use. Anyone can copy it, recreate with it, reproduce with it. That has been freeware, if you like. That’s been the understanding.

“There’s a separate category where a website or a publisher or a news organization had explicitly said, ‘do not scrape or crawl me for any other reason than indexing me so that other people can find that content.’ That’s a gray area and I think that’s going to work its way through the courts.”

Fortunately, Suleyman does state that Microsoft cannot use specific data to train its AI models if the content creator does not allow it. Reading these statements, it is not surprising to learn that the software titan and OpenAI have been involved in several copyright infringement lawsuits in the past. In short, it is likely up to the courts to decide how Microsoft can utilize data to train its AI models, and it appears that there will be a ton of gray areas that will be included in new legislation.

In conclusion, it is absolutely unacceptable to use someone else’s effort for another purpose, but as Microsoft’s executive pointed out earlier, if you have not given permission, that specific data will not be repurposed.

News Source: CNBC