Generative AI & Copyright

On 22 August 2024, as a prelude to the Global Forum on Intellectual Property (GFIP) that will be held at Marina Bay Sands the following week, the Singapore Academy of Law and TRAIL partnered to organise a seminar that brought together practitioners, policymakers and academia to discuss some of the salient challenges facing copyright law brought about by the rapid development of artificial intelligence (AI).

Titled “AI & Copyright: Understanding Authorship, Infringement and Fair Use”, the seminar focused on the Singapore Copyright Act 2021 with comparative analysis of statutory and judicial positions in the US, EU, UK and China.

Professor David Tan, Co-Director of TRAIL, assembled a veritable panel of well-known intellectual practitioners to share their views: Dr Stanley Lai SC (Head (IP Practice), Allen & Gledhill LLP); Mr Lau Kok Keng (Head (IP, Sports & Gaming Practice) Rajah & Tann Singapore LLP); Mr Tony Yeo (Managing Director (IP Practice), Drew & Napier LLC) and Ms Trina Ha (Chief Legal Counsel, Intellectual Property Office of Singapore (IPOS)).

With over sixty participants, the seminar explored when authorship could be attributed to a human individual who entered the text prompts for generative AI applications such as ChatGPT and Midjourney to produce text and images, whether the input of works for large language models (LLMs) to analyse and learn was an infringing use, and whether the computational data analysis and fair use exceptions provided a safe harbour for these tech companies who are constantly refining these AI applications.

(L-R): Mr Lau Kok Keng, Ms Trina Ha, Prof David Tan, Mr Tony Yeo and Dr Stanley Lai

Dr Stanley Lai speaking on AI authorship

Mr Lau Kok Keng offering his perspectives on infringing input of works for machine learning

Mr Tony Yeo giving a crash course on exceptions and limitations

Ms Trina Ha providing a review of what IP offices around the world are doing

Prof David Tan sets a light-hearted tone for the panel discussion

Dr Stanley Lai explaining the differences between the US and China decisions on AI authorship

Mr Tony Yeo responding to an audience member’s question

Mr Lau Kok Keng commenting on the licensing of works for machine learning