YouTube CEO Neal Mohan recently warned OpenAI about using YouTube creators’ videos to train its AI models, stating it’s a “clear violation” of its terms of service.

Violation of Terms of Service

Mohan emphasized that using videos without proper permissions violates YouTube’s terms, which prohibit downloading or using video content without consent. This issue has sparked debates about the responsibilities of AI developers regarding data usage and copyright.

“From a creator’s perspective, when a creator uploads their hard work to our platform, they have certain expectations. One of those expectations is that the terms of service is going to be abided by. It does not allow for things like transcripts or video bits to be downloaded, and that is a clear violation of our terms of service. Those are the rules of the road in terms of content on our platform,” Mohan stated in an interview with Bloomberg Originals host Emily Chang.

OpenAI’s new text-to-video AI tool, Sora, has raised concerns about its data sources and potential copyright infringements. The company has faced lawsuits, including one from comedian Sarah Silverman and others, alleging the unauthorized use of copyrighted material in its training data.

The broader context involves ongoing legal battles between AI companies and content creators, such as The New York Times, over copyright issues. As AI development grows, balancing innovation with legal compliance is crucial becomes more crucial.

A recent report by The New York Times claims that OpenAI developed Whisper, its audio transcription tool, to transcribe over a million hours of YouTube videos to train GPT-4, which powers Sora. The New York Times also reports that OpenAI thought this act fell under fair use, even though it believed it to be shaky legally.

Impact on AI Development

YouTube’s CEO’s warning expands the conversation regarding AI ethics and regulations. As AI technology advances, media companies are trying to figure out ethical data practices for AI training. Since this is an issue of intellectual property rights, companies like YouTube are still upholding their terms of service.

We will have to wait and see how YouTube responds to The New York Times’ report.