Artificial intelligence (AI) lawsuits are lawsuits that are based on claims involving the training, output, and application of AI systems. These lawsuits often involve issues such as copyright infringement, data privacy violations, discriminatory outcomes, and other intellectual property issues, such as intellectual property theft.
Parties that are often involved in AI lawsuits may be publishers, artists, authors, and many others. Defendant parties are being sued for using copyright materials to train their AI models or create works without permission.
There are several key areas of litigation related to artificial intelligence, including:
- AI Copyright Infringement: There are lawsuits alleging that AI companies have illegally used intellectual property to train AI or produce AI-based works, which reproduces patterns without attribution or compensation.
- Discrimination and Harmful Outcomes: These cases challenge the AI models, alleging they can perpetuate bias, for example, discrimination in employment or insurance.
- Data Privacy and Consent: These types of lawsuits involve the misuse of someone’s personal data for training or generating harmful, intimate content, for example, AI deepfakes.
- Contractual and Competitive Disputes: Legal cases have been filed alleging misuse of AI technology.
The legal landscape related to artificial intelligence is rapidly evolving. Courts are examining whether training artificial intelligence with copyrighted materials constitutes fair use. Additionally, courts are reviewing whether AI platforms may be held responsible for reproducing content that is copyrighted.
What Is AI?
Artificial intelligence, commonly referred to as AI, is simulated human intelligence on a computer system. With AI, machines reason, learn, perceive, problem-solve, and understand language.
AI can also optimize processes and predict trends. AI uses algorithms and data instead of explicit programming to identify patterns, make predictions, and improve performance over time.
Some examples of AI that many individuals are familiar with include Siri, Alexa, and customer service chatbots. Facial recognition as well as the personalized suggestions that appear on services such as Amazon and Netflix are also powered by AI.
What Are Some Common Legal Disputes Involving AI?
There are some common legal disputes that arise involving AI, which include:
- Liability
- If an AI system malfunctions, it may be unclear what party is responsible
- Courts are currently making determinations regarding whether AI platforms will be held responsible for harmful outputs and whether they owe a duty of care to users
- Output accuracy
- AI systems can produce false or misleading information, which can result in risk if individuals rely on those outputs, especially in certain situations, such as medical situations
- Intellectual property ownership and copyright
- AI generated copyright issues are currently being debated
- Copyright infringement
- Artificial intelligence copyright infringement issues include whether training AI models on copyrighted materials is copyright infringement
- Data privacy breaches
- If users input certain types of sensitive data for AI training, it may violate privacy and confidentiality laws
- Deepfakes and Privacy Issues
- There have been claims related to deepfakes as well as AI-generated nonconsensually produced intimate content, such as nude photos
- Algorithmic bias and discrimination
- When there is a bias in the AI training data, the system may perpetuate or amplify the bias, which can result in discriminatory decisions
There have also been a number of lawsuits filed against AI companies related to issues such as copyright and AI, child safety, and data scraping. Other examples of areas of law that AI-related claims have been filed under include:
- Use of copyright images in training
- Issues that are related to video, image, and audio rights
- Antitrust and fraud claims involving allegations of unfair competition
- Teen mental health issues
- Claims have been filed alleging that AI bots can be harmful to minors because the bots encourage suicidal behaviors, emotional dependency, and addiction
Artificial technologies and the laws that govern them are currently evolving and will continue to do so into the future as cases continue to be decided. New legal decisions will likely share the use of AI across industries in the future.
AI copyright laws and other intellectual property laws related to AI will likely continue to evolve as technology continues to advance. Because of this, it is essential to consult with an intellectual property lawyer for advice on the latest legal decisions.
How Can I Protect My Works from Being Stolen By AI?
Intellectual property attorneys can help individuals who are seeking to protect their works from being stolen by AI. These attorneys can provide guidance on many topics, including, but not limited to AI art law, AI art copyright infringement, AI generated image copyrights, and AI copyright lawsuits.
There are some steps individuals can take to protect their creative works. When available, they can opt out of training data. They can also use anti-AI platforms.
There are cloaking and anti-scraping tools available that individuals can add to their digital art that can prevent AI from learning the style. Web restrictions can also be added to websites to keep bots from crawling content.
Watermarks can be added to images to reduce their value if they are stolen. Individuals can also add “No AI Training” copyright notices or similar language on their websites and digital files.
If an individual is an employee or a freelancer, they can protect their work by making sure their contract explicitly states that their work cannot be used to train AI models. There may also be other legal strategies available that lawyers can help with, depending on an individual’s specific situation.
What if I Want To Use AI? How Can I Avoid Legal Liability?
If an individual wants to use AI, there may be ways they can take steps to help implement copyright infringement liability limitations. The most important step an individual can take to limit their legal liability is to consult with an attorney for helpful strategies and advice.
Help strategies can include having strict and written internal AI policies, having human oversight for all AI-generated output, and making sure there are no data privacy issues by not inputting any confidential information into public AI models. There may also be specialized types of insurance available to help in the event a claim is filed.
How Can a Lawyer Help Me With AI Legal Issues or an AI Lawsuit?
Intellectual property lawyers can be very helpful if someone has any form of AI-related dispute. An attorney can provide advice about how an individual can protect their creative materials, such as registering for a copyright and what protections that would provide.
If an individual does find themselves involved in a dispute, a lawyer can help determine which parties may be liable. Intellectual property attorneys can review the facts to figure out what types of claims may be filed, such as breach of contract, fraud, and copyright infringement.
Currently, several impactful legal cases are being decided regarding the use of AI and how it interacts with copyright protections. An intellectual property attorney will be familiar with the most recent updates in Artificial Intelligence law.
If many people are all being affected by the same type of legal issue, an AI class action lawsuit may be needed. An attorney can assist with the process for this type of case as well.
Should I Hire a Lawyer for Help if I Have a Legal Dispute Involving AI?
If you have any questions or legal disputes that involve AI, it is very important to consult with an intellectual property lawyer. As discussed above, the laws governing AI and its use and interaction with intellectual property issues are currently evolving and will likely be doing so well into the future.
LegalMatch provides free lawyer-client matching services that you can use to find an intellectual property attorney in your area who can help you with your AI concerns. It will only take you a few minutes to complete the online submission process today.
