The North Portico of the White House in an August shot. Image – Getty: Nate Hovee
By Porter Anderson, Editor-in-Chief | @Porter_Anderson
‘Deeply, Wisely, and Globally Engaged’
Late last week, many were focused on Donald Trump’s coming trip to Scotland during which he’d meet with the European Commission’s Ursula von der Leyen on what Sunday was described as a highly successful framework on EU and American trade. Anna Swanson, Jeanna Smialek, and Melissa Eddy wrote for The New York Times, “Altogether, while it was clear that major details still needed to be hammered out, the framework seemed likely to permanently reshape the trading relationship between two of the world’s largest and most interconnected economies.”More quietly, the White House on Wednesday (July 23) had released its report, Winning the Race: America’s AI Action Plan (PDF), which positions the administration’s view of artificial intelligence as “a national security imperative for the United States to achieve and maintain unquestioned and unchallenged global technological dominance … [to] harness the full power of American innovation.” The document in its first paragraph relates the action plan to an executive order signed earlier this year called “Removing Barriers to American Leadership in Artificial Intelligence.”
In a communiqué shared with Publishing Perspectives, the Association of American Publishers‘ (AAP) president and CEO Maria A. Pallante in Washington explains that AAP’s personnel “met with the administration several times as it was drafting the action plan, working closely with other creative and information sectors.”
Despite this cooperative work with the administration’s development of its plan, however, the AAP team may have been surprised to find that “The only mention of IP (on Page 12 of the action plan),” as Pallante writes, “says it is ‘essential for the US government to effectively address security risks to American AI companies, talent, intellectual property, and systems.”
Pallante makes it clear, “We appreciate the administration’s leadership in formulating this action plan as to US and global interests and for its stakeholder engagement during the past few months. No one paying attention can deny that AI is a paradox, both a promising technology for good and a serious threat to global security.
“We agree that the United States must be deeply, wisely, and globally engaged—not only to explore positive aspects of the technology, but also to protect democracies over autocracies and to ensure that we protect American values and the fundamental rights that underpin our society and economy.”
Maria A. Pallante
During its interactions with the administration team, the AAP group submitted commentary to make the position of the book-publishing industry and associated creative industries clear. In fact, Pallante now writes, “We stressed that intellectual property is an essential and synergistic leadership priority for the United States as it considers AI policy, and we are pleased that the action plan does not disparage or call for the diminishment of copyright protections, as some Big Tech companies and investors had publicly urged.”
The main part of that commentary for the administration, submitted by AAP on March 15, is vested in a proposal of “the major themes and suggestions” that the White House might use to “promote AI leadership and protect American intellectual property.”
The top lines on those three themes and suggestions from the AAP are:
(a) “The United States can provide singular AI leadership by prioritizing intellectual property and AI together;
(b) “Generative AI owes its success to the investments of publishers and authors: copyright litigation has been necessary to protect broad American interests and ideals globally, but the White House has an opportunity to promote partnerships between American companies; and
(c) “A vibrant licensing market continues to evolve between publishers and AI developers, and the White House should embrace and encourage it.”
‘We Look Forward to Working Further’
Also on July 23, Trump also appeared at a “Winning the AI Race” event presented by the bipartisan Hill & Valley Forum which brings together lawmakers, venture capitalists, and tech players with special interest in China and technology. The nonprofit Tech Policy Press has produced a transcript of the president’s remarks.
“We know that high-quality AI depends upon high-quality authorship, which makes robust copyright protection and marketplace licensing even more essential to protecting and promoting US interests and values.”Maria A. Pallante, AAP
During the session it does appear that Trump is aware of the IP and copyright question, saying, “What we really need to be successful is a very simple phrase called ‘common sense,’ and that begins with a common-sense application of artificial and intellectual property rules. It’s so important. You can’t be expected to have a successful AI program when every single article, book, or anything else that you’ve read or studied, you’re supposed to pay for. Gee, I read a book, I’m supposed to pay somebody. And we appreciate that, but you just can’t do it because it’s not doable. And if you’re going to try and do that, you’re not going to have a successful program.”
The president goes on to talk about Chinese competition and practicality in regulations, saying, “So when you have something, when you read something and when it goes into this vast intelligence machine, we’ll call it, you cannot expect to every time, every single time, say, ‘Oh, let’s pay this one that much. Let’s pay this one.’ It just doesn’t work that way. Of course, you can’t copy or plagiarize an article, but if you read an article and learn from it, we have to allow AI to use that pool of knowledge without going through the complexity of contract negotiations, of which there would be thousands for every time we use AI.”
And among several points in the action plan, the administration team writes that the Office of Management and Budget should “work with all federal agencies to identify, revise, or repeal regulations, rules, memoranda, administrative orders, guidance documents, policy statements, and inter-agency agreements that unnecessarily hinder AI development or deployment.”
In her memo, Pallante writes, “In the months ahead, we look forward to working further with the administration on AI and IP. We know that high-quality AI depends upon high-quality authorship— including literature and research publications—which makes robust copyright protection and marketplace licensing even more essential to protecting and promoting US interests and values.”
More from Publishing Perspectives on copyright is here, more on issues in artificial intelligence is here, and more on the work of the Association of American Publishers is here.