Reuters Wins First Copyright Lawsuit Against AI

Also, Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei releases statement after Paris AI Action Summit

Author

Jack Lajoie
February 12, 2025 • read time ~ 7 minutes

⚡️ Headlines

🤖 AI

OpenAI CEO Says Board Will Reject Musk’s $97 Billion Offer – OpenAI’s board has no interest in accepting Elon Musk’s unsolicited multi-billion-dollar takeover offer. [The Information]

EU Pledges $200 Billion in AI Spending in Bid to Catch Up with U.S., China – The European Union plans a massive AI investment to close the technological gap with global leaders. [Wall Street Journal]

Roblox Joins Tech Companies in New Fund to Protect Kids Online – Roblox partners with other tech giants in a multi-million-dollar initiative to improve online child safety. [Bloomberg]

Nvidia Challenger Raises $11 Million from Valor Equity, Atreides, Others – A promising competitor to Nvidia secures funding to accelerate its AI hardware development. [The Information]

The Tech People Helping the Trump Administration Shake Up Government – A group of Silicon Valley insiders works to modernize U.S. government operations under Trump’s leadership. [The Information]

[Content not accessible - https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c0m17d8827ko] – This article is behind a paywall or inaccessible. [BBC]

🤳 Social Media

YouTube TV Viewing Overtakes Mobile, Says CEO Neal Mohan – YouTube’s CEO reveals that TV viewing has now surpassed mobile streaming as its top platform. [Hollywood Reporter]

YouTube AI Updates Include Auto-Dubbing Expansion and Age-Identifying Tech – YouTube enhances its AI capabilities, adding features like automated dubbing and new age verification technology. [TechCrunch]

⚖ Legal

U.S. Attorney General Vance Pushes for Global AI Rules at Paris Summit – At a Paris summit, U.S. Attorney General calls for international cooperation on AI regulations. [New York Times]

EU Plans New AI Liability Rules to Hold Developers Accountable – New European Union regulations aim to make AI developers liable for harm caused by their technologies. [BBC]

🎱 Random

Google I/O 2025 Date Announced for May 14-16 – Google sets its annual developer conference for May 2025, teasing updates across its product ecosystem. [9to5Google]

🔌 Plug-Into-This

Thomson Reuters won a key AI copyright lawsuit against Ross Intelligence, which had copied content from its Westlaw legal database. The U.S. District Court ruled this use did not qualify as fair use, setting a significant precedent for AI companies using copyrighted material.

  • The lawsuit was filed in 2020, marking one of the first legal battles over AI and copyright.

  • Judge Bibas ruled that Ross’s use of Westlaw content directly competed with it, rejecting all defenses.

  • The ruling emphasized the market impact as the key fair use factor.

  • This decision could influence numerous ongoing AI-related copyright cases in the U.S. and globally.

  • Ross Intelligence shut down in 2021 due to legal costs, unlike better-funded AI companies like OpenAI.

🧑‍⚖️ This could the first domino in a long train of lawsuits where smaller AI companies (without the deep pockets of the big ones) lose basic copyright lawsuits, which until now, hadn’t been fully interpreted under the current form of the DMCA. We all know the 27 year old law needs an update, but it likely won’t come quickly.

Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei emphasized the need for urgent global collaboration on AI governance during the Paris AI Action Summit. He warned that AI’s rapid development could have profound societal and economic implications if not carefully managed, particularly regarding security, economic disruption, and geopolitical power shifts.

  • AI could become as influential as a “new country” with global power implications.

  • Focus areas included AI misuse risks, economic disruption, and maintaining democratic leadership.

  • Governments must enforce transparency in AI safety policies.

  • Anthropic called for stronger global cooperation on AI supply chains and security.

  • The newly launched Anthropic Economic Index monitors AI’s labor market impact.

🇫🇷 The Paris Action Summit was a bit of a flop for anyone hoping for meaningful AI regulation agreements. Generally, the political climate at the moment is leaning towards acceleration and removing regulation.

Meta is reportedly in discussions to acquire FuriosaAI, a South Korean AI chip startup founded by a former Samsung engineer. This potential acquisition aims to bolster Meta's in-house chip development capabilities, enhancing its AI infrastructure and reducing reliance on external suppliers.

  • FuriosaAI, established in 2017, has raised approximately $115 million in funding to date.

  • The startup specializes in high-performance AI accelerators designed for data centers and edge computing applications.

  • Meta's interest aligns with its strategy to develop custom silicon solutions for AI workloads, aiming to improve performance and efficiency.

  • This move reflects a broader industry trend of tech giants investing in specialized hardware to optimize AI processing capabilities in-house.

🤖 Still just a rumor really, but an unsurprising one as Meta likely seeks to follow the path laid out by primary competitors Apple and Google, who both have developed competitive chip manufacturing capacities in recent years. In Apple’s case, less reliance on external chip providers through launching their M-series chip has certainly improved the marketability of their core products and promises improvements tailored to their customer’s unique demand.

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