Mustafa Suleyman's stance on fair use in AI training sparks legal debates over copyright infringement. The ongoing lawsuits involving major players li

Microsoft AI CEO Mustafa Suleyman sparked controversy with his recent interview where he likened the internet to "freeware" for AI training.

In a recent interview, Mustafa Suleyman, the head of Microsoft Corp.'s MSFT AI division, made a controversial statement about the use of content from the open web. What Happened: Suleyman suggested that any content published on the open web is considered ...

“With respect to content that is already on the open web, the social contract of that content since the ’90s has been that it is fair use,” Suleyman said. “Anyone can copy it, recreate with it, reproduce with it. That has been freeware, if you like. That’s been the understanding.”

Microsoft is currently the target of multiple lawsuits alleging that it — and OpenAI — are stealing copyrighted online stories to train generative AI models, so it may not surprise you to hear a Microsoft exec defend it as perfectly legal. I just didn’t expect him to be so very publicly and obviously wrong!

Mustafa Suleyman believes almost all web content can be used for AI training unless explicitly restricted by the creator.

Creators Fume at Microsoft AI Chief's Comment Labeling Web Content as Freeware! (Need for Balanced AI Training & Protecting Creators' Rights).