India’s government wants AI companies to pay for content

The Indian government requires AI companies to pay for access to content they use to train models, but only once they start generating revenue.

This idea emerged yesterday in a working paper (PDF) prepared by a Generative Artificial Intelligence and Copyright Committee of India’s Ministry of Industrial Promotion and Internal Trade.

The paper notes that AI model developers have largely not paid for copyrighted content, and the global debate over fair use exceptions to copyright law followed.

The ministry concludes that free access to content – ​​a “zero price licensing model” – is not appropriate as it would “undermine incentives for human creativity and could lead to long-term underproduction of human-created content.”