#The Guardian says it’s blocking OpenAI from building off its content

The Guardian announced Friday that it will block artificial intelligence (AI) text generation program ChatGPT from accessing and using its content.

AI products, such as ChatGPT, scrape content already online and use it as data to create new content via complex algorithms. Concerns over whether these programs have the legal right to use published text, audio and images to train their algorithms have continued to rise since their launch into the public spotlight last year.

OpenAI, which owns ChatGPT, announced last month that website owners can opt out of having their content used by its algorithms. 

“The scraping of intellectual property from the Guardian’s website for commercial purposes is, and has always been, contrary to our terms of service,” The Guardian’s publisher said in a statement. 

“The Guardian’s commercial licensing team has many mutually beneficial commercial relationships with developers around the world, and looks forward to building further such relationships in the future,” the statement reads.

AI safety has been a priority of the Biden administration’s dealings with the technology. President Biden and Vice President Harris met with top industry leaders in May to encourage them to make their technology transparent and avoid discrimination. 

In July, Biden announced seven industry leaders agreed to a “responsible development” pledge, which includes rigorous testing and marking AI-generated content.

Legal battles over whether AI-use of content falls under copyright fair use is expected in the future, and some industry experts believe legislation from Congress would only then follow.

“I don’t expect Congress to step in until at least the first round of litigation is kind of through, and so that means probably five years at least,” Robert Brauneis, a George Washington University Law professor and AI expert, told The Hill in June.

Despite that, some members of Congress have pushed for AI regulation sooner rather than later. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) outlined his plans this summer and committed Thursday to bipartisan forums in the Senate on the technology later this month.

The House also proposed its bipartisan artificial intelligence regulation commission in June.