Hadar Yoana Jabotinsky (Tel Aviv University – Cegla Center for Interdisciplinary Research of the Law; The Hadar Jabotinsky Center for Interdisciplinary Research of Financial Markets, Crises and Technology (HJC)) & Michal Lavi (Hebrew University of Jerusalem – Faculty of Law; The Hadar Jabotinsky Center for Interdisciplinary Research of Financial Markets, Crises and Technology (HJC)) have posted Can ChatGPT and the Like Be Your Co-Authors? (Cardozo Arts & Entertainment Law Journal, Forthcoming) on SSRN. Here is the abstract:
On November 30, 2022 OpenAI released an AI based chatbot called ChatGPT (Generative Pre-trained Transformer). This AI system uses natural language processing (NLP) techniques to generate written text by learning the patterns and structures of natural language. ChatGPT is a versatile chatbot with the ability to write speeches, news articles, and essays either wholly or partially. Some users acknowledge ChatGPT as a- co-author of the generated text, while others only acknowledge its use in writing the document. In fact, this issue became so pressing in academia that Springer Nature, the world’s largest academic publisher, announced that software like ChatGPT cannot be credited as an author in papers published in its thousands of journals. However, the question of authorship when working with text generator Chatbots remains an open issue. Following the release of ChatGPT other Chatbots, such as Google’s Bard and AutoGPT have emerged. It is now clear that these Chatbots are here to stay, and so the issue of co-authorship and IP rights in the final products of these Chatbots became an important legal question. Can ChatGTP and the like be your co-author or whether it is just a tool that assists in writing? This Article further discusses the possibility of granting algorithms with a separated legal personhood.
This, however, is not the only pressing legal issue with regards to ChatGPT and the like. Currently, U.S law does not grant copyright rights to Algorithms, but this law was not enacted with AI in mind. This Article is thus also interested with the question what is the scope of copyright protection in AI generated creations?
A first step in answering these questions is to refer to the Terms of Service (TOS) as a contractual relationship and the service's policy. The TOS can waive any rights that may exist. However, if the TOS are silent about authorship, the Article argues that it is time to discuss AI rights or attribution of the rights to the company that designed the algorithm. These rights should only be granted when the Chatbot is used beyond a mere assisting tool.
Finally, the Article concludes that even if AI is not referred to as a co-author, there should be a transparency obligation to reveal that the creation was assisted by the AI Generative Pre-trained Transformer. Such compelled disclosure does not conflict with First Amendment values, but instead contributes to the efficiency of the “marketplace of ideas”.