AI lab | Podcast Season: 1 - Episode: 1 / Release date: 15-6-2023 - Recording date: 1-6-2023

1:1 with Alina Trapova
UCL Faculty of Laws

Episode Highlights

00:00 Intro

01:07 The TL;DR Perspective

10:05 The Deepdive: AI decrypted
Q1 | You consider that the way copyright relevant legislation is looked at currently by EU legislators benefits only a limited number of cultural industries. Can you expand on that?

17:34 Q2 | In the AI Act, the EP slid Article 28b sub 4c, relating to transparency. Knowing that it is not that obvious to identify what is copyrighted and what isn’t, do you think this can even be done?

22:31 Q3 | You encourage legislators to be cautious when looking at regulating an emerging digital technology. Where do you see a risk of using an elephant gun to kill a fly?

26:47 Outro

Key Quotes

"AI is a very big hype. It has pushed all sorts of institutions (...) to think about legislating (...) Copyright law is not the suitable right (...) when we talk about AI generated works."

1 / 9

"Once we introduce any new IP rights, once we extend copyright, it’s very difficult to get rid of these rights. It’s very difficult to repeal them. They involve a lot of costs of different nature: legislative, compliance, licensing, etc."

2 / 9

"Lobbying is not bad, per se, but it has to be (...) backed up with evidence, not just with presence. Very often, unfortunately, in many of our discussions on copyright law, this has been missing."

3 / 9

"[The EP’s AI Act] transparency obligation is extremely difficult to comply with. To actually list all or most of the copyright material a generative AI provider is including in their training data is a good aspiration, but (...) this is impossible."

4 / 9

"We are not talking to each other (...). Copyright scholars, computer scientists, artists and lawmakers should interact a little bit more. (...) Now we see the practical difficulties of sliding something last minute in our [AI] legislation that is going to have a huge impact."

5 / 9

"These days, every data, AI linked aspect is being regulated to the extent that we, allegedly experts in the fields of copyright, IP, data protection, data, are lost, let alone the public and those that will have to actually work with these regulations."

6 / 9

"It is very difficult to make sense of all of these pieces of regulations and directives (...), and they have to work together. We can no longer pretend (...) legislation will be without any prejudice (...) We are rushing things too much."

7 / 9

"The IP landscape in the EU is just so complicated (...) but it has to make sense to the public [and] those that will be protected by that legislation. This is especially true for copyright law."

8 / 9

"The tech side (...) the discussion with computer scientists who tell us this is excellent, but it doesn't work in practice (...) is somehow missing. (...) We need to work together to find meaningful ways to not kill a fly with an elephant gun."

9 / 9

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About Our Guest

Dr. Alina Trapova | Lecturer in Intellectual Property Law - UCL Faculty of Laws

Dr Alina Trapova is a Lecturer in Intellectual Property Law at University College London (UCL) and a Co-Director of the Institute for Brand and Innovation Law. Alina is one of the Co-Managing editors at the Kluwer Copyright Blog. Prior to UCL, she worked as an Assistant Professor in Autonomous Systems and Law at The University of Nottingham (UK) and Bocconi University (Italy). Before joining academia, she has worked in private practice, as well as the EU Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO) and the International Federation for the Phonographic Industry (IFPI).

Relevant Resources

European Parliament AI Act Position Put to Vote on 14 June, 2023

European Law Review [(2023) 48] | Copyright for AI-Generated Works: A Task for the Internal Market?

Kluwer Copyright Blog | Copyright for AI-Generated Works: A Task for the Internal Market?

Institute of Brand and Innovation Law (UCL, University College London)

Dr Alina Trapova

1:1 with Alina TrapovaUCL Faculty of Laws