Illegal training is "fair use" – a tough week for creative work in the age of AI
Week of June 29: Anthropic wins big; AI-powered dream visualizer; an AI band racks up 450,000 monthly listeners in 2 weeks
Welcome to Diffusia. Every Sunday, I curate a selection of AI news, inspiration, and experiments – specifically tailored for artists & creatives.
🌐 One Big Headline
Judge rules that illegal training is “fair use”
A federal judge ruled in favor of Anthropic in a lawsuit claiming the company illegally trained its AI models on copyrighted books without permission – a legal battle that mirrors ongoing cases against nearly every major AI company.
The judge found that merely training an AI on copyrighted text – even without consent – doesn't automatically violate copyright law. Since the models aren’t replicating the books word-for-word, the act of training itself may qualify as fair use:
"Anthropic's LLMs trained upon works not to race ahead and replicate or supplant them – but to turn a hard corner and create something different." – Judge Alsup
The case taps into a bigger debate: should tech companies be allowed to train on creative works without paying or crediting their creators? Anthropic says it’s fair use and vital for progress; authors say it’s unpaid labor fueling billion-dollar tools. The ruling doesn’t settle the issue, but it tilts the scale – for now – in tech’s favor.
Why this matters:
If courts keep siding with AI companies, artists and writers may lose control over how their work is used. This case could set a precedent where your creations are mined for profit without consent, reshaping what ownership means in the age of generative AI.
🌀 Other Currents
🎨 Visual Arts & Design
AI as a dream recorder? Modem works, an Amsterdam-based design studio, created a DIY device that uses AI to visualize your dreams in low-res. They’ve provided the open source code and instructions for you to 3D print and assemble the device yourself.
In their 2025 trends report, Monotype – the typography giant behind the Helvetica font – predicts a future where AI makes typography dynamic and personalized.
They believe fonts will eventually adapt in real time to readers’ emotions, gaze, environment, and reading speed. Fonts could sharpen when you're focused, shift style based on light or time of day, and even highlight key points for better engagement. AI will also enable anyone to create professional-quality type without design training.Researchers expose major vulnerabilities in AI art protection tools. They found "significant weaknesses" in Glaze and NightShade, two popular tools used by artists to protect their work from invasive use of generative AI.
🎷 Music
Has an AI band taken over your Spotify playlists? The Velvet Sundown has amassed over 450,000 monthly listeners in 2 weeks – with a bio almost certainly written by ChatGPT, and band members that don’t exist anywhere else online.
People speculate that the band is another creation from AI music generators Suno and Udio. Deezer – who we wrote about last week – flagged the band’s music as potentially AI-generated. More in the Let’s Discuss section below.
🖋️ Writing & Publishing
The Atlantic reports on "The End of Publishing as We Know It." Major investigation reveals AI companies' assault on the media industry, with book publishers expecting significant sales drops as Google Overview and chatbots summarize works and provide detailed content explanations.
🗣️ Let’s discuss…
… AI music and the Velvet Sundown (Music Radar):
“If it's good I could care less how it was made.” – Azarath2025
“Is there not enough real music? What is the point of publishing AI music? Are people tired of authentic expression and want soulless music now? There are already around 10,000 songs being uploaded to streaming platforms every day. "Let's add more, but fake music!" - says the human race. I do not understand.” – Timm Spinn
What do you think? Join the discussion in the comments below.
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