US Department of Justice supports fair use for AI training

The US Department of Justice (DOJ) is advocating for the classification of training artificial intelligence models on copyrighted text as ‘fair use’ under the Copyright Act. In a Statement of Interest submitted to the US District Court for the Southern District of New York, the DOJ argued that such practices are essential for national security and the economic competitiveness of the United States.

This intervention occurs within the ongoing legal battle between the New York Times and OpenAI and Microsoft. The DOJ maintains that scraping news content for AI training purposes does not constitute copyright infringement, framing the maintenance of AI industry dominance as a matter of national interest.

This position contrasts with previous judicial rulings, such as the Third Circuit Court of Appeals decision regarding Ross Intelligence, where training on specific legal headnotes was not deemed fair use because the product was viewed as a direct competitor to the original service.