Artificial Intelligence, Authorship, and the Public Interest aims to identify, clarify, and offer answers to some of the most challenging copyright questions posed by artificial intelligence (AI) and explain how this new technology can best advance knowledge and serve the public interest.
Artificial intelligence has dominated public conversation about the future of authorship and creativity for several years. Questions abound about how this technology will affect creators’ incentives, influence readership, and what it might mean for future research and learning.
At the heart of these questions is copyright law. Over two dozen class-action copyright lawsuits have been filed between November 2022 and today against companies such as Microsoft, Google, OpenAI, Meta, and others. Additionally, congressional leadership, state legislatures, and regulatory agencies have held dozens of hearings to reconcile existing intellectual property law with artificial intelligence. As one of the primary legal mechanisms for promoting the “progress of science and the useful arts,” copyright law plays a critical role in creating, producing, and disseminating information.
We are convinced that how policymakers shape copyright law in response to AI will have a lasting impact on whether and how the law supports democratic values and serves the common good. That is why Authors Alliance has already devoted considerable effort to these issues, and this project will allow us to expand those efforts at this critical moment.
Call for Grant Proposals
We are pleased to announce the availability of research grants of up to $20,000 to support research projects at the intersection of artificial intelligence, copyright law, and the public interest. These grants are part of our broader initiative aimed at generating research that illuminates how emerging AI technologies and legal frameworks can be shaped to serve knowledge, creativity, and the common good.
We welcome applications from scholars working in law, information science, publishing, computer science, digital humanities, and related disciplines. As generative AI tools become increasingly embedded in the processes of writing, research, and publication, copyright law is being pushed to adapt. Ongoing litigation, regulatory debates, and global policy divergence have created both uncertainty and opportunity. Amidst this moment of transformation, we seek to support research that reflects and reinforces public interest values: equity, access, transparency, and responsible innovation.
More details about the grant and what we’re looking for in an application are available here. For your convenience, here is a readable PDF that will allow you to preview all of the fields in the online form.
Support
This project is supported by generous funding from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation.
About the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation
We are social investors who support democracy by funding free expression and journalism, arts and culture in community, research in areas of media and democracy, and in the success of American cities and towns where the Knight brothers once had newspapers. Learn more at kf.org and follow @knightfdn on social media.