OpenAI and Google call for government exemption to use copyrighted content in AI training

OpenAI is urging the Trump administration to grant AI companies an exemption that would allow them to train their models on copyrighted material—a move it argues is crucial for maintaining America's leadership in artificial intelligence.

"America's robust, balanced intellectual property system has long been key to our global leadership on innovation. We propose a copyright strategy that would extend the system's role into the Intelligence Age by protecting the rights and interests of content creators while also protecting America's AI leadership and national security," OpenAI wrote in its submission. The company stressed that the federal government should secure Americans' freedom to learn from AI while ensuring that U.S. models can continue to learn from copyrighted material—avoiding the risk of ceding AI leadership to competitors like the People’s Republic of China.

In addition to the copyright exemption, OpenAI recommended that the U.S. maintain tight export controls on AI chips destined for China and adopt AI tools more broadly within the government. Notably, OpenAI has already introduced a version of ChatGPT tailored for U.S. government use earlier this year.

Google echoed similar sentiments in its own recommendations for the AI Action Plan. The tech giant argued that balanced copyright rules—including fair use and text-and-data mining exceptions—are essential for allowing AI systems to learn from previously published data. "These exceptions allow for the use of copyrighted, publicly available material for AI training without significantly impacting rightsholders and avoid often highly unpredictable, imbalanced, and lengthy negotiations with data holders during model development or scientific experimentation," Google stated.

Both companies underscore the critical role of such exemptions in advancing AI capabilities. OpenAI previously claimed that it would be "impossible to train today's leading AI models without using copyrighted materials." The call for exemptions comes as OpenAI faces several copyright infringement lawsuits, including cases involving The New York Times and a group of authors led by George R.R. Martin and Jonathan Franzen. Meanwhile, OpenAI has also accused Chinese AI startups of attempting to replicate its technologies.

As the administration reviews proposals under its AI Action Plan, industry leaders are closely watching how new policies will balance the protection of intellectual property with the need to foster innovation and maintain U.S. competitiveness in the global AI race.

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