Government to make new ‘AI law’ to protect media and content creators: IT minister Ashwini Vaishnaw

tech.hindustantimes.com:

In a major step towards protecting news publishers and content creators from copyright violations done by companies while training their artificial intelligence (AI) models, Electronics & Information Technology Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said that the Indian govt is planning to formulate a new AI law. This development comes after the govt made it mandatory for companies to get a permit before rolling out their untested models, a decision that was highly talked about and ultimately revoked later on.

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Speaking to the Economic Times, the minister said that while there would be “good space for innovation”, the AI law would be “strong on securing the rights and sharing the proceeds” between content creators, news publishers and companies developing AI technologies such as Large Language Models (LLMs). The minister said, “There is a transition happening. Our position is that the transition should not be disruptive because lakhs of livelihoods are involved. “

The law would be introduced with creativity in focus, both in terms of its financial and commercial implications, as well as intellectual property. While nothing is concrete, the new AI law could become part of the Digital India Act which was proposed last year with the aim of superseding 2000's Information Technology Act.

The minister said, “One thought is to form a self-regulatory body. But we don't think that would be enough. We think that this regulation should be done by legislative method. We have already consulted the industry. After elections, we will launch a formal consultation process and move towards legislation.”

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Although nothing is clear, the new AI law could be a welcome move amidst lawsuits filed by news publishers against AI companies. The New York Times became the first major publisher to sue