July 23rd, 2025
This morning, I was a little relieved when I first read “Winning the Race: America’s AI Action Plan,” (pdf) and saw that there was no mention of copyright. (The closest it comes is a mention of IP: “It is also essential for the U.S. government to effectively address security risks to American AI companies, talent, intellectual property, and systems.”) Whew. I thought: I guess they’re still pondering this complex issue and don’t want to speak out too soon.
Then, this evening, just as I had finished reading about Columbia University’s $220 settlement with Washington, I got to President Trump’s afternoon presentation about this new AI plan (and, it being Trump, about a whole bunch of other things as well).
You can watch the whole wacky, discursive talk here. Ignoring upwards of one hundred years of progress, Trump notes that AI, “just popped out of the air. But here we are.”
Tune in around 00:19:50 to hear Trump slay copyright law. He declared that the only significant copy-right that creatives should have is to prevent copying or plagiarizing.
“Of course, you can’t copy or plagiarize an article,” he said. “But, if you read an article and learn from it, we have to allow AI to use that pool of knowledge without going through the complexity of contract negotiations of which there would be thousands for every time we use AI.”
Note that his remarks were not the usual off-the-cuff Trump confabulations. He’s clearly reading from the teleprompter, suggesting (indicating?) that these were (carefully?) prepared remarks. It would be reasonable to assume that the content of the remarks was approved by David Sacks, the (our?) “AI czar” and Sacks’ numerous AI industry associates.
Broadly, I support the necessity of determining a practical method within the law for AI organizations to access the published corpus — but not in the sense that it should deny creators their rights, and deny them the right to compensation. Having no regulation is not the solution to having cumbersome regulation.
But what Trump stated today is tragic, a sad day for authors and publishers and for all of us who care about words and how they are created and disseminated. He is doing an end-run on the legal system, signaling to Congress and the courts where the Trump administration stands on copyright litigation.
You’ll find the relevant transcript and an abridged video on Edward Lee’s blog (and in his previous entries a lot of great analysis on copyright and the law).
You are going to be reading a great deal about this in the days ahead from folks far better informed and more eloquent than I.
I just needed to put something on the record.
NOTE: Trump’s speech was part of an event sponsored by the “All‑In Podcast and the Hill & Valley Forum.” The co-hosts of the All‑In Podcast are listed as Jason Calacanis, David Friedberg, Chamath Palihapitiya, and David Sacks (who is also the “White House A.I. & Crypto Czar.”)
The order now signed: David Sacks claps behind Trump (Photo by Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/AFP via Getty Images)
Calacanis and Sacks were early investors in Created By Humans, an organization “on a mission to preserve human creativity and make it thrive in the AI era.” Calacanis is still listed as an investor, while Sacks is not.
In June 2025 Sacks announced that he was exiting his AI investments, although his undated disclosure statement does not mention Created by Humans. The disclosure statement notes that “Craft Ventures [of which Sacks is a partner]… has done the same [divested… from, a large number of companies that could potentially pose conflict-of-interest concerns for (his) position].”
The Authors Guild has partnered with Created by Humans to “protect and monetize authors’ works in AI development.”
(And, as always, I note that I write about these topics with the proviso that I am not a lawyer, and recognize that the law in these matters is too complex for the amateur to comment on with authority. The principles: those we can weigh in on.)