- Using generative AI in marketing materials poses legal risks such as copyright infringement.
- Adding substantial human input to documents using AI could keep marketers out of the danger zone.
- This article is part of “CXO AI Game Manual” – candid talks from business leaders about how they are testing and using AI.
More marketers are turning to generative AI to help create marketing content with the goal of increasing productivity and meeting customer and consumer demands. But in a 2023 survey for Deloitte, more than 75% of companies surveyed said they were concerned about legal risks related to intellectual property, such as copyright infringement claims.
These are legitimate concerns, said Peter Yu, professor of law and communications and director of the Center for Law and Intellectual Property at Texas A&M University. Executives should consider whether they can protect their creative output and whether the use of artificial intelligence could expose them to legal liability.
There are already lawsuits related to these issues, Yu said. For example, the Authors Guild and several well-known authors, including George RR Martin, the author of the “Game of Thrones” books, filed a complaint against OpenAI, the creator of ChatGPT, alleging copyright infringement.
Although these cases revolve around the use of copyrighted works to train AI models, Yu said they could affect the entire AI landscape. AI-generated content – but we don’t yet know exactly how. He said the outcome of these cases would provide insight into how marketers might be affected when using AI to create content.
Yu spoke in more detail about these issues with Business Insider and offered some advice for marketers developing their craft in the age of AI.
The following has been edited for clarity and length.
What do marketers need to know about protecting their creative output when using AI?
The US Copyright Office has deemed that any work autonomously generated by A.I. not be protected by copyright law and refused to register several works. The federal court confirmed the decision of the office.
It’s not that if you use AI you will suddenly lose copyright protection. The key to obtaining protection is to demonstrate that there is sufficient human creative input. Right now, many marketers benefit from a lot of human creative input, even if they use AI tools.
So, using AI on a work doesn’t automatically prohibit someone from filing a copyright application?
If 10% of the work is created by AI, but then you bring in designers to polish it, and the other 90% is actually done by humans, as long as you claim it correctly, you will still be able to get a copyright. registration. But if you just go to an AI platform, type in a single prompt and use that content, it may not be protectable.
Why should marketers worry about copyright infringement if they use AI?
Many cases filed for copyright infringement involve AI developers. They are suing them for using copyrighted works like training data without authorization. But the way copyright law is written, there’s no reason why copyright owners can’t sue other users.
Who is most likely to be subject to legal action due to an AI use violation?
Right now, many users are individuals who play with the tools and don’t use the content for commercial purposes. From a legal point of view, it makes no sense to go after these individuals. But if companies use these tools to make money, there’s no reason copyright owners can’t sue them.
Using AI for commercial purposes could expose you to legal liability or legal threats of copyright infringement. Even if a company can prove in court that it is not committing a crime, a threat would require it to use a lot of resources to defend itself.
What advice would you give to marketers when using AI for content creation?
On the intellectual property side, it’s important to make sure you document human creative contribution, especially if you’re trying to apply for copyright. Even if that’s not the case, it would still be useful to know which part is created by humans and which part is created by AI. It would be important to understand this from the beginning when integrating AI into their creative process.
