{"id":1885125,"date":"2026-04-16T09:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-04-16T06:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=1885125"},"modified":"2026-04-16T09:00:00","modified_gmt":"2026-04-16T06:00:00","slug":"the-ai-doc-director-says-fck-you-to-ai-companies-taking-artists-ip","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=1885125","title":{"rendered":"‘The AI Doc’ director says \u2018F*ck you\u2019 to AI companies taking artists\u2019 IP"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Home<\/a>><\/span>Tech<\/a><\/div>\n<\/section>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

‘The AI Doc’ director says \u2018F*ck you\u2019 to AI companies stealing artists\u2019 IP<\/h1>\n
AI companies have laid claim to your cultural heritage. The documentarians behind ‘The AI Doc’ have a clear message for them.<\/div>\n
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\n \u00a0By\u00a0<\/p>\n
Timothy Beck Werth<\/a><\/p>\n
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Timothy Beck Werth<\/div>\n
Tech Editor<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n Timothy Beck Werth is the Tech Editor at Mashable, where he leads coverage and assignments for the Tech and Shopping verticals. Tim has over 15 years of experience as a journalist and editor, and he has particular experience covering and testing consumer technology, smart home gadgets, and men\u2019s grooming and style products. Previously, he was the Managing Editor and then Site Director of SPY.com, a men’s product review and lifestyle website. As a writer for GQ, he covered everything from bull-riding competitions to the best Legos for adults, and he\u2019s also contributed to publications such as The Daily Beast, Gear Patrol, and The Awl.\n <\/div>\n

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Sam Altman speaks during a media tour at the Stargate AI data center in Abilene, Texas in 2025.<\/span>Credit: Kyle Grillot\/Bloomberg via Getty Images<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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For years, AI companies have trained their models on artists’ copyright-protected work, without permission or payment.<\/p>\n

That’s because training data is the fuel that powers new AI models, and in the AI arms race, companies like OpenAI, Anthropic, xAI, Meta, and Google are mining every corner of the internet \u2014\u00a0and our shared cultural heritage \u2014 for untapped data.<\/p>\n

When I talked to Daniel Roher<\/a>, the Oscar-winning co-director of The AI Doc: Or How I Became an Apocaloptimist<\/em><\/a>, he had a blunt message for tech CEOs who lay claim to protected work: “Fuck you.”<\/p>\n

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When I spoke to Roher and producer Ted Tremper about the AI copyright issue in recent interviews, I mentioned a conversation I had with the CEO of a leading AI video company. The CEO told me training is fair use, full stop. (“It’s not called learning right, or training right. It’s called copyright.”) And to that attitude, Roher had a blunt response.<\/p>\n

“The guy who has a financial vested interest is saying that he’s gonna train his model on what the fuck he wants?” Roher told me. “It’s kind of like the guy who runs the tobacco company saying that, you know, smoking is good for you. Everyone should have a cigarette, and if you say differently, fuck you. And to that, I’m like, ‘Dude, go fuck yourself.'”<\/p>\n

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AI companies offer several defenses for using copyrighted material without paying. There’s the cost argument \u2014 models have billions of parameters, and it would be too expensive to compensate individual rights holders. The China argument (an argument President Donald Trump has echoed<\/a>) \u2014 Chinese AI companies aren’t asking for permission, so neither can we. Then, there’s the fair use argument<\/a> \u2014 training AI models on copyrighted work falls under the fair use legal doctrine.<\/p>\n

Right now, dozens of lawsuits from authors<\/a>, musicians, journalists, and entertainment giants like Disney<\/a> are tackling the fair use question, arguing that AI companies have to abide by copyright law like everyone else. <\/p>\n

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Last year, the U.S. Copyright Office issued a report<\/a> concluding that training is likely\u00a0not\u00a0<\/em>covered by fair use, though it isn’t legally binding. (Disclosure: Ziff Davis, Mashable\u2019s parent company, filed a lawsuit against OpenAI in April 2025, alleging it infringed Ziff Davis copyrights in training and operating its AI systems.)<\/p>\n

Early court rulings on this topic have so far favored AI companies<\/a>, and Big Tech is forging ahead with its quintessential “move fast, break things” ethos. You’ve heard of “ask forgiveness, not permission,” but AI companies typically aren’t asking for either.<\/p>\n

SEE ALSO:<\/span>Judge in ‘Kadrey v. Meta’ AI copyright case rules for Meta, against authors<\/span><\/a><\/div>\n

So, is the David versus Goliath AI copyright battle already lost, I asked Roher?<\/p>\n

“Language like ‘the battle’s already been lost’? [Dude], relax. The battle hasn’t already been lost,” Roher said. “This is just a unique challenge of 25th-century technology that’s crash-landed into the 21st century, being regulated by legislative processes forged in the 17-fucking-hundreds. And court cases take a long time, but I think, at the end of the day, the book is still very much open on whether the IP battle has been won or lost.”<\/p>\n

Roher also urged anyone with an interest in artificial intelligence to push back against overreach from Big Tech.<\/p>\n

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