Cape News

U.S. Senator Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) chaired a Judiciary subcommittee hearing to address the role of major technology companies in the piracy of copyrighted content for training artificial intelligence models. The session included testimonies from bestselling author David Baldacci, AI experts, and law professors, supporting claims that companies like Meta have overstepped technological innovation boundaries into illegal activities.

“Today’s hearing is about the largest intellectual property theft in American history... AI companies are training their models on stolen material, period... And we’re not talking about these companies simply scouring the internet for what’s publicly available. We’re talking about piracy,” stated Senator Hawley.

The senator emphasized the importance of protecting America's creative community against exploitation by large corporations. “Are we going to protect [Americans’ creative community], or are we going to allow a few mega-corporations to vacuum it all up, digest it, and make billions of dollars in profits—maybe trillions—and pay nobody for it. That’s not America,” he argued.

Baldacci highlighted the detrimental impact mass piracy has on authors and creators, saying, “Every single one of my books was presented to me... in three seconds. It really felt like I had been robbed of everything of my entire adult life that I had worked on.”

Significant findings from the hearing revealed:

- AI companies trained on over 200 terabytes of copyrighted work.

- Big Tech engaged in unauthorized downloading of this material.

- Companies facilitated further piracy by uploading more than 50 terabytes illegally.

- Meta employees were aware of their illegal actions but continued regardless.

The full subcommittee hearing is available for viewing online.