Chanley Howell Discusses Importance of Legal Guidance for Companies Using Generative AI

Foley & Lardner LLP partner Chanley Howell is quoted in the TechTarget article, “Lawyers win in race to generative AI without adequate laws,” commenting on the liability concerns surrounding the use of generative artificial intelligence.

Howell said AI vendors are at little risk themselves of copyright infringement claims. He explained that most generative AI systems produce content comprised of bits and pieces from many different sources, so the output is less likely to be based on a single reference that could violate copyright.

“There are certainly risks, but I put copyright way down the list,” he said.

Howell also noted that the top concern among Foley clients is protecting information on customers, operations, and strategies used in prompts to generate outputs. “The risk is more how the AI vendor can use our clients’ data,” he said. “It’s not so much the risk of using the output from the AI solution.”

“You’ve got to get legal involved from day one,” Howell added. “If you don’t, you’re going to have problems.”