The illegal use of copyrighted material. Copyright infringement is a major topic in both the U.S. and Europe today because AI companies have scraped a huge amount of content from the Internet without asking for permission. The reason AI chatbots seem to "know everything" is that they have been trained on almost all the information available over the Internet. "Fair use" is the claim AI companies make. See
fair use doctrine and
copyright.
There Are Lawsuits
In the U.S. as of mid-2026, there are lawsuits against several AI companies that are in various stages of progress. For example, cases have been initiated by the Authors Guild, The New York Times, Getty Images, Artist Rights Coalition (music), Universal Music Group, Ziff Davis and other organizations that publish content over the Internet.
Debuting in 2025, the U.S. Government's AI Action Plan thus far appears to favor the AI companies rather than the copyright holders (see
AI Action Plan). Stay tuned!