U.S. Government Backs OpenAI: AI Training Qualifies as Fair Use of Copyrighted Material
nashnova research
The Trump administration filed its first-ever court brief declaring AI training a fair use of copyrighted work — This means → tech companies now have the highest-level government endorsement yet in their fight against copyright lawsuits.
What exactly did the government say?
On September 2, the Trump administration filed an amicus brief — a legal opinion submitted by a non-party to help guide the court — in Manhattan federal court, explicitly backing OpenAI's position.
The core claim: using copyrighted text to train AI constitutes "fair use" and does not infringe copyright.
The brief cited two justifications: scientific progress and national security, arguing that restricting large language models would "impede creative and scientific progress and harm American prosperity and economic mobility."
How did this lawsuit start?
The New York Times sued OpenAI and Microsoft in 2023, alleging they used millions of news articles without permission to train ChatGPT.
This is not an isolated case — authors, publishers, music labels, and news organizations have filed dozens of similar lawsuits against OpenAI, Anthropic, Meta, and others.
In plain terms = the entire content industry is asking the same question: does training AI on my work count as infringement?
What have courts ruled so far?
Two judges have already ruled on whether AI training qualifies as fair use — and their conclusions directly contradict each other.
This means → the law itself is unsettled; precedent is still being formed.
The government's intervention is the highest-level official statement to date and will directly shape the legal trajectory of every related case going forward.
What does this mean for tech companies and content creators?
For tech companies: the government's endorsement significantly strengthens the fair-use defense — OpenAI, Anthropic, and Meta now hold a heavyweight card in similar lawsuits.
For content creators: copyright holders face greater headwinds; winning compensation through the courts just got harder.
This reflects a deeper signal: forced to choose between protecting copyright and advancing AI, the US government has clearly picked the latter.
市场有风险，内容仅供研究参考，不构成投资建议。