MIT AI Risk Repository · Risk Sub-Category · 49.03.06

Copyright infringement

Category: Systemic Risks

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Description

"The use of large amounts of copyrighted data for training general- purpose AI models poses a challenge to traditional intellectual property laws, and to systems of consent, compensation, and control over data. The use of copyrighted data at scale by organisations developing general- purpose AI is likely to alter incentives around creative expression."

From International Scientific Report on the Safety of Advanced AI (Bengio2024), as extracted by the MIT AI Risk Repository (CC BY 4.0).

Classification

Domain: 6. Socioeconomic & Environmental
Subdomain: 6.3 Economic and cultural devaluation of human effort
Causal entity: Human
Intent: Intentional
Timing: Post-deployment

Subdomain definition: AI systems capable of creating economic or cultural value, including through reproduction of human innovation or creativity (e.g., art, music, writing, code, invention), can destabilize economic and social systems that rely on human effort. This may lead to reduced appreciation for human skills, disruption of creative and knowledge-based industries, and homogenization of cultural experiences due to the ubiquity of AI-generated content.

Real-world incidents in this subdomain

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How other frameworks describe this risk

Loss of creativity/critical thinking
A Collaborative, Human-Centred Taxonomy of AI, Algorithmic, and Automation Harms (Abercrombie2024)
Cultural dispossession
A Collaborative, Human-Centred Taxonomy of AI, Algorithmic, and Automation Harms (Abercrombie2024)
Risks of copyright infringement
International AI Safety Report 2025 (Bengio2025)
Copyright Violation
Risk Taxonomy, Mitigation, and Assessment Benchmarks of Large Language Model Systems (Cui2024)
Intellectual property rights violations
Navigating the Landscape of AI Ethics and Responsibility (Cunha2023)
Impact on Intellectual Property Rights
Generating Harms - Generative AI's impact and paths forwards (EPIC2023)
Intellectual Property
AILUMINATE: Introducing v1.0 of the AI Risk and Reliability Benchmark from MLCommons (Ghosh2024)
Intellectual property rights
Future Risks of Frontier AI (GOS2023)

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