Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) on Thursday called for the repeal of a law that shields major tech companies from lawsuits over content created on their platforms amid the rapid rise of artificial intelligence (AI). <\/p>\n
Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, which provides tech firms with immunity from legal challenges over user-generated content, has increasingly come under pressure as society has grappled with the impacts of social media and, more recently, AI. <\/p>\n
Hawley took aim at the training of AI models on copyrighted works Thursday, arguing the solution is to open up tech firms to legal liability. <\/p>\n
\u201cThe AI large language models [LLMs] have already trained on enough copyrighted works to fill the Library of Congress 22 times over,\u201d the Missouri Republican said at the National Conservatism Conference. \u201cLet me just put a finer point on that \u2014 AI’s LLMs have ingested every published work in every language known to man already.\u201d \u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cAs I look out across the room and see many authors, all of your works have already taken,\u201d he continued. \u201cDid they consult you? I doubt it. Did they compensate you? Of course not. This is wrong. This is dangerous.\u201d <\/p>\n
He argued there should be property rights assigned to specific forms of data and legal liability for the companies that use it. The senator also called for the full repeal of Section 230. <\/p>\n
\u201cOpen the courtroom doors,\u201d Hawley said. \u201cAllow people to sue who had their rights taken away from them, including suing companies and actors and individuals who use AI.\u201d <\/p>\n