This changes things, and will probably elevate the argument to the WIPO. Takashi Kii had an opportunity to talk to the “Second Subcommittee of the House of Representatives’ Settlement and Administration Oversight Committee, and had a direct discussion with Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology Nagaoka”. (Kii, 2023) The surprising answer that came back was:
First of all, when I checked the legal system (copyright law) in Japan regarding information analysis by AI, I found that in Japan, whether it is for non-profit purposes, for profit purposes, or for acts other than duplication, it is obtained from illegal sites, etc. Minister Nagaoka clearly stated that it is possible to use the work for information analysis regardless of the method, regardless of the content. (Kii, 2023)
You can read the whole article here – https://go2senkyo.com/seijika/122181/posts/685617 and it is in Japanese so have your translator out and ready to go.
Of course this set the world on fire today so everyone is talking about it, as it removes a growing barrier to training LLM AI models. They need the data, the internet has the data, and that includes places like Deviant Art, Getty Images, Pixabay, and just about anyplace else online at this point.
It complicates the issue for original content creators, and will need to be part of the conversation about how content creators share their art. LLM’s are voracious, they consume everything in the need to learn. Content Creators are not ready for this, and that is for all kinds of content creation.
It will be interesting seeing what WIPO comes out with, as that is where this is going to go next.