CONFIRMED: Adam Schiff's Generative AI Copyright Disclosure Act Would Apply to Video Games, Virtual Worlds & Metaverse Platforms

Representative Adam Schiff recently announced the Generative AI Copyright Disclosure Act, a bill that would require gen AI companies like Midjourney and OpenAI to disclose if any copyrighted works were used in its training data. As he put it in the announcement:

We must balance the immense potential of AI with the crucial need for ethical guidelines and protections. My Generative AI Copyright Disclosure Act is a pivotal step in this direction. It champions innovation while safeguarding the rights and contributions of creators, ensuring they are aware when their work contributes to AI training datasets. This is about respecting creativity in the age of AI and marrying technological progress with fairness.

The bill is backed by a raft of major film and music industry groups (Congressman Schiff is based in Los Angeles), and it seems intended to primarily protect those mediums from unauthorized AI training of their intellectual property.

But does it apply to video games, virtual worlds, and metaverse platforms? That's not made clear in the wording.

So I contacted Adam Schiff's office. Asking exactly that:

"Would the Act apply to 3D models, i.e., content in video games, virtual worlds, and metaverse platforms? So for instance, 3D models of castles, heroes, user-generated 3D models, and so on."

Rep. Schiff's communications officer confirmed to me that indeed it does:

"Yes, it would apply to any copyrighted material."

That's an important clarification, as the game/metaverse industry clamors to add generative AI content into their experiences. (And the bill, if passed, would retroactively apply "to previously released generative AI systems".) Indeed, Midjourney's CEO recently told me the company plans to create something like the Holodeck of Star Trek.

But if Schiff's act becomes a law, every generative AI platform would probably need to seek permission, license, and compensate creators of 3D content in their system, once they or the copyright holder (such as a game publisher) is notified. Which will be another daunting cost for most platforms. (Though some gen AI platforms already train only on licensed content.)

But will it become a law? Schiff's office tells me there's no timeline for when it's expected to be put up for a vote.

My semi-informed forecast is it has a very good chance of being made a law -- after the 2024 election, depending on its outcome:

Above: Created in Midjourney by Kala Bijoux with the prompt, "Imagine Adam Schiff as a video game character fighting dragons"

Among Democrats, Schiff is a very well-known and admired Congressperson, thanks in great part for leading the prosecution of both Trump impeachments. He's now running for Senate and will almost certainly win.

So if Adam Schiff is elected, and Biden is elected, and the Democrats win both the House and Senate -- give that a 50-60% chance of happening -- Schiff is perfectly positioned to pass this bill.

Then again, if Trump is elected, worrying about copyright in AI platforms will probably be the least of all our concerns. Including Adam Schiff. 

Top image generated by Pikaso, generative AI program recommended to me by Gogo, who has a blog post about it.

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Comments

[camilia fid3lis nee Patchouli Woollahra]

Good law takes time to get right when it covers something this potentially society-changing. Let's not rush it. This isn't exactly as critical to pass fast as aid for Ukraine and Taiwan.

[Luddite of the luddites]

Fantastic, now like youtube everyone is going to have to pay royalties on everything. The peanut gallery will of course be praising this and our country as a whole will be held back while others with more lax restrictions will advance beyond us. A valuable tool for people has been lost, and a few wealthy people will remain wealthy. Great job luddites - way to screw over everyone with your paranoia and weak understanding of how "transformative" technology works.

[Martin K.]

> Let's not rush it.

I agree: we don't yet know how existing copyright laws apply to media generated by AIs, thus, it appears to be too early to introduce additional laws.

By the way, metaverse platforms already have an effect on the licensing of 3D assets. For example, some companies started to prohibit the use of their assets on metaverse platforms in their standard end user licenses, e.g. synty (https://syntystore.com/pages/end-user-licence-agreement):

> END USER will be prohibited from using the asset license for the following products: [...] Creation of content for Metaverse-related and/or Game Creation Software and products. [...]

Even Unity's Asset Store End-User License Agreement is challenging when importing paid assets to some metaverse platforms unless every person who ever has access to the asset on the metaverse platform is covered by a paid license.

[Wagner James Au]

> like youtube everyone is going to have to pay

YouTube actually has a pretty elegant automated process where if copyrighted music is detected in a video, the rights holder is alerted, and IP owner has the option of monetizing the video through ad revenue, or removing the music entirely. I imagine something like that will be implemented in gen AI platforms.

[Luddite of the luddites]

"I imagine something like that will be implemented in gen AI platforms."
With the exception that the artist never created the generated image in the first place, this would be like having to charge artists who learned how to draw in a specific style a fee.

None of their artwork was ever used in the actual drawing, a specific style, which likely doesn't belong to them in the first place was, the transformative nature of this technology learned from it. Imagine if we did the same thing for people, who drew art - if they had to pay fees to whoever "owned" that style of art.

As far as songs go, it would be the same way. Charge people for singing a certain style, imagine having to pay fees for singing some genre. It is an absolute rubbish way to run society. It stifles creativity, and is yet another power grab by a few people to maintain control over the rest of us.