US judge sides with Meta in AI training copyright case
A US judge on Wednesday handed Meta a victory over authors who accused the tech giant of violating copyright law by training Llama artificial intelligence on their creations without permission.District Court Judge Vince Chhabria in San Francisco ruled that Meta’s use of the works to train its AI model was “transformative” enough to constitute “fair use” under copyright law, in the second such courtroom triumph for AI firms this week.However, it came with a caveat that the authors could have pitched a winning argument that by training powerful generative AI with copyrighted works, tech firms are creating a tool that could let a sea of users compete with them in the literary marketplace.”No matter how transformative (generative AI) training may be, it’s hard to imagine that it can be fair use to use copyrighted books to develop a tool to make billions or trillions of dollars while enabling the creation of a potentially endless stream of competing works that could significantly harm the market for those books,” Chhabria said in his ruling.Tremendous amounts of data are needed to train large language models powering generative AI. Musicians, book authors, visual artists and news publications have sued various AI companies that used their data without permission or payment.AI companies generally defend their practices by claiming fair use, arguing that training AI on large datasets fundamentally transforms the original content and is necessary for innovation.”We appreciate today’s decision from the court,” a Meta spokesperson said in response to an AFP inquiry.”Open-source AI models are powering transformative innovations, productivity and creativity for individuals and companies, and fair use of copyright material is a vital legal framework for building this transformative technology.”In the case before Chhabria, a group of authors sued Meta for downloading pirated copies of their works and using them to train the open-source Llama generative AI, according to court documents.Books involved in the suit include Sarah Silverman’s comic memoir “The Bedwetter” and Junot Diaz’s Pulitzer Prize–winning novel “The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao,” the documents showed.”This ruling does not stand for the proposition that Meta’s use of copyrighted materials to train its language models is lawful,” the judge stated.”It stands only for the proposition that these plaintiffs made the wrong arguments and failed to develop a record in support of the right one.”- Market harming? -A different federal judge in San Franciso on Monday sided with AI firm Anthropic regarding training its models on copyrighted books without authors’ permission.District Court Judge William Alsup ruled that the company’s training of its Claude AI models with books bought or pirated was allowed under the “fair use” doctrine in the US Copyright Act.”Use of the books at issue to train Claude and its precursors was exceedingly transformative and was a fair use,” Alsup wrote in his decision.”The technology at issue was among the most transformative many of us will see in our lifetimes,” Alsup added in his decision, comparing AI training to how humans learn by reading books.The ruling stems from a class-action lawsuit filed by authors Andrea Bartz, Charles Graeber, and Kirk Wallace Johnson, who accused Anthropic of illegally copying their books to train chatbot Claude, the company’s ChatGPT rival.Alsup rejected Anthropic’s bid for blanket protection, ruling that the company’s practice of downloading millions of pirated books to build a permanent digital library was not justified by fair use protections.
China hosts Iranian, Russian defence ministers against backdrop of ‘momentous change’
China hosted defence ministers from Iran and Russia for a meeting in its eastern seaside city of Qingdao on Thursday against the backdrop of war in the Middle East and a summit of NATO countries in Europe that agreed to boost military spending.Beijing has long sought to present the 10-member Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) as a counterweight to Western-led power blocs and has pushed to strengthen collaboration between its member countries in politics, security, trade and science.The Qingdao meeting of the organisation’s top defence officials comes as a fledgling ceasefire between Israel and Iran holds after 12 days of fighting between the arch-foes.It is also being held the day after a summit of North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) leaders in The Hague, where members agreed to ramp up their defence spending to satisfy US President Donald Trump.Chinese Defence Minister Dong Jun framed Thursday’s meeting of officials in Qingdao, home to a major Chinese naval base, as a counterweight to a world in “chaos and instability”.”As momentous changes of the century accelerate, unilateralism and protectionism are on the rise,” Dong said as he welcomed defence chiefs from Russia, Iran, Pakistan, Belarus and elsewhere on Wednesday, according to state news agency Xinhua. “Hegemonic, domineering and bullying acts severely undermine the international order,” he warned.He urged his counterparts to “take more robust actions to jointly safeguard the environment for peaceful development”.Meeting Dong on the sidelines of the summit, Russian Defence Minister Andrei Belousov hailed ties between the two countries as being “at an unprecedentedly high level”.”Friendly relations between our countries maintain upward dynamics of development in all directions,” he said.China has portrayed itself as a neutral party in Russia’s war with Ukraine, although Western governments say its close ties have given Moscow crucial economic and diplomatic support.
Syrian architect uses drone footage to help rebuild hometown
Syrian architect Abdel Aziz al-Mohammed could barely recognise his war-ravaged village when he returned after years away. Now, his meticulous documentation of the damage using a drone helps to rebuild it.”When I first came back, I was shocked by the extent of the destruction,” said Mohammed, 34.Walking through his devastated village of Tal Mardikh, in Syria’s northwestern Idlib province, he said he could not recognise “anything, I couldn’t even find my parents’ home”.Nearly half of Tal Mardikh’s 1,500 homes have been destroyed and the rest damaged, mainly due to bombardment by the former Syrian army.Mohammed, who in 2019 fled the bombardment to near the Turkish border, first returned days after an Islamist-led offensive toppled longtime ruler Bashar al-Assad in December.The architect, now based in Idlib city, had documented details of Tal Mardikh’s houses and streets before fleeing, and afterwards used his drone to document the destruction.When he returned, he spent two weeks carefully surveying the area, going from home to home and creating an interactive map showing the detailed conditions of each house.”We entered homes in fear, not knowing what was inside, as the regime controlled the area for five years,” he said.Under the blazing sun, Mohammed watched as workers restored a house in Tal Mardikh, which adjoins the archaeological site of Ebla, the seat of one of ancient Syria’s earliest kingdoms.His documentation of the village helped gain support from Shafak, a Turkey-based non-governmental organisation which agreed to fund the reconstruction and rehabilitation of 434 out of 800 damaged homes in Tal Mardikh.The work is expected to be completed in August, and includes the restoration of two wells and sanitation networks, at a cost of more than one million dollars.- ‘Full of hope’ -Syrians have begun returning home after Assad’s ouster and following nearly 14 years of civil war that killed over half a million people and displaced millions of others internally and abroad.According to the United Nations refugee agency, UNHCR, more than 600,000 Syrians had returned home from abroad, while around 1.5 million internally displaced people have gone back to their regions of origin.The agency estimates that up to 1.5 million Syrians from abroad and two million internally displaced people could return by the end of this year.Around 13.5 million currently remain displaced internally or abroad, according to UNHCR figures for May.In Tal Mardikh, Alaa Gharib, 45, is among only a few dozen residents who have come back.”I lived in tents for seven years, and when liberation came, I returned to my village,” said Gharib, whose home is among those set for restoration.He is using a blanket as a makeshift door for his house which had “no doors, no windows, nothing”.After Western sanctions were lifted, Syria’s new authorities are hoping for international support for post-war reconstruction, which the UN estimates could cost more than $400 billion.Efforts have so far been limited to individuals or charities, with the government yet to launch a reconstruction campaign.Architect Mohammed said his dream was “for the village to be rebuilt, for people and life to return”.He expressed hope to “see the Syria we dream of… the Syria full of hope, built by its youth”.
Judge orders Trump admin to release billions in EV charging funds
A federal judge has ordered the Trump administration to release billions of dollars allocated for the construction of electric vehicle charging stations in over a dozen US states.In a ruling Tuesday, US District Judge Tana Lin granted a preliminary injunction to require distribution of funds for National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure (NEVI) development, which was allotted $5 billion for use from 2022 to 2026.Signed into law by then-president Joe Biden in 2021, the NEVI program was defunded by the Trump administration’s Department of Transportation in February, axing expected funding for 16 states and the District of Columbia.President Donald Trump has repeatedly called climate change a “hoax,” abandoned electric vehicle booster programs and campaigned to drill for oil extensively. Trump has also blocked California’s plan to ban internal combustion engine vehicles by 2035.Seventeen attorneys general sued the Trump administration to unfreeze funds in May, led by California, the state with the largest number of electric vehicles.”It is no secret that the Trump Administration is beholden to the fossil fuel agenda,” said California Attorney General Rob Bonta, adding legal programs can’t be dismantled “just so that the President’s Big Oil friends can continue basking in record-breaking profits.”The Democrat praised Lin’s order and said California “looks forward to continuing to vigorously defend itself from this executive branch overreach.”In responding to the ruling, a Department of Transportation spokesperson on Wednesday blasted the Biden-era NEVI program as a “disaster” and said Lin was “another liberal judicial activist making nonsensical rulings from the bench because they hate President Trump.”It was not clear whether the administration intends to appeal the ruling.”While we assess our legal options, the order does not stop our ongoing work to reform the program,” the spokesperson added.The Trump administration has until July 2 to appeal or release funds under Lin’s order, which applies to Arizona, California, Colorado, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Maryland, Minnesota, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, Washington, Wisconsin and the District of Columbia.
After ‘Dune,’ Denis Villeneuve to helm next James Bond film
Fresh from his success with the “Dune” saga, Denis Villeneuve has been tapped to direct the next movie in the storied James Bond franchise, Amazon MGM Studios announced Wednesday.The online retail giant has chosen a filmmaker very much in vogue in Hollywood as he makes his first foray into the world of the now-iconic British agent 007, first brought to life seven decades ago by writer Ian Fleming.Villeneuve, who is Canadian, said he grew up watching Bond films with his father. “I’m a die-hard Bond fan. To me, he’s sacred territory,” Villeneuve said in a statement released by Amazon. “I intend to honor the tradition and open the path for many new missions to come,” he added. “This is a massive responsibility, but also, incredibly exciting for me and a huge honor.”There is no word yet on who will play Her Majesty’s spy.Daniel Craig’s final portrayal of James Bond came in 2021 following the release of “No Time to Die.” Since then, 007 has seen many twists and turns.Amazon paid nearly $8.45 billion to buy legendary Hollywood studio MGM in 2022, which included distribution rights to Bond’s extensive back catalog.But for the subsequent three years, the retail behemoth was met with resistance from Barbara Broccoli and Michael Wilson, the franchise’s historic producers who for decades had jealously guarded the governance of one of cinema’s most valuable properties.The company run by Jeff Bezos finally reached a financial agreement with the pair in February to take creative control of the franchise.Some fans have expressed concern that the character will be exploited by Amazon through a multitude of new films, or spinoff series that go direct to its streaming platform Prime.Against this backdrop, the choice of Villeneuve, who also directed “Blade Runner 2049” and “Arrival,” resonates as a pledge to purists.”We are honored that Denis has agreed to direct James Bond’s next chapter,” Mike Hopkins, head of Amazon MGM Studios, said in the statement, noting Villeneuve’s track record with “immersive storytelling.””He is a cinematic master, whose filmography speaks for itself.” Villeneuve’s two installments of science-fiction saga “Dune” were each nominated for an Oscar for Best Picture. “Dune: Part Two,” released in 2024, grossed $700 million globally and won Oscars for Best Sound and Best Visual Effects.