US DOJ backs fair use for AI training

The DOJ's filing introduces a key analogy, comparing AI training to the writer Joan Didion copying Hemingway's stories as a teenager to learn. The department argues that under a different ruling's logic, Didion could have faced liability whenever she published, and that it would be unthinkable to require payment for drawing on a book to write something new. This frames AI training as a creative process.

The department also claims LLMs have creative and public value, stating that human beings create original works using LLMs and that liability would stifle creativity. It notes that even New York Times writers reportedly use LLMs to draft and edit articles. These arguments are positioned against the concern that a multibillion-dollar company turning content into mass-market products is different from a single author's learning process.