Meta’s AI Model Leaves Judge Twisting Over Market ‘Obliteration’

Meta Platform Inc.'s generative AI model might theoretically obliterate the markets for copyrighted work, a federal judge said, but evidence is thin that the tech giant could have that effect on the works of authors including Sarah Silverman.

“I’ve twisted myself into a pretzel,” Judge Vince Chhabria told a packed courtroom in downtown San Francisco during a nearly three-hour hearing Thursday.

The judge is tasked with determining whether Meta’s decision to download millions of copyrighted books from notorious digital piracy websites to train its generative AI model Llama falls under the law’s fair use defense. He’ll likely be the first ...