There isn’t a clear answer yet. There are several lawsuits underway against companies like OpenAI, Microsoft, and Stability AI. Many artists and writers feel that AI is appropriating their work without consent or compensation, threatening their creative livelihoods. Others say that training AI models on copyrighted works is fair use. They argue that AI models learn from these works to generate transformative original content, so no infringement occurs.
A judge in class action lawsuit versus Anthropic AI in 2025 recently ruled that Anthropic's scanning of books to train data was Fair Use, but their use of pirated (illegally copied) works to train was not and that is still going to trial. The final outcome could change in higher court.
Many scholars and librarians agree that training AI language models on copyrighted works is fair use and essential for research. If restricted to public domain materials, AI models would lack exposure to newer works, limiting the scope of inquiries and omitting studies of modern history, culture, and society from scholarly research.
This issue is complex, and it will likely take a long time before the lawsuits are settled. Some courts have thrown out parts of the lawsuits, but kept others. Some cases may be settled out of court.
Learn more by checking out the TCC Library copyright guide, where you can also find the below box of information:
This answer adapted under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License from the University of Arizona Libraries.