OpenAI made waves this week with its bold assertion to a UK parliamentary committee that it would be “impossible” to develop today’s leading AI systems without using vast amounts of copyrighted data.

The company argued that advanced AI tools like ChatGPT require such broad training that adhering to copyright law would be utterly unworkable.

In written testimony, OpenAI stated that between expansive copyright laws and the ubiquity of protected online content, “virtually every sort of human expression” would be off-limits for training data. From news articles to forum comments to digital images, little online content can be utilised freely and legally.

According to OpenAI, attempts to create capable AI while avoiding copyright infringement would fail: “Limiting training data to public domain books and drawings created more than a century ago … would not provide AI systems that meet the needs of today’s citizens.”

While defending its practices as compliant, OpenAI conceded that partnerships and compensation schemes with publishers may be warranted to “support and empower creators.” But the company gave no indication that it intends to dramatically restrict its harvesting of online data, including paywalled journalism and literature.