Sony AI, Sony’s research and development division dedicated to AI, has developed a new technology called Protective AI (PA), as reported by The Nikkei. Its purpose is to prevent copyright infringement in videos and music generated by AI and create a system in which creators can receive fair compensation.
Apart from preventing blatant infringement by prohibiting, say, “Ghibli-style” outputs, Protective AI is apparently trained to avoid imitation even through indirect prompts. This works by deliberately feeding the source material, in this case Studio Ghibli data, to the model, and instructing it to generate outputs that diverge from that style.
Additionally, the technology is meant to allow creators and rightsholders to be compensated when their work contributes to output generated by the AI model. Sony has previously mentioned such efforts when it comes to music specifically, citing the experimental use of “unlearning algorithms to measure how much each training example contributed to the generated output.” It seems Protective AI will also approach video output in a similar way, pursuing attribution and compensation to rightsholders.
Protective AI (PA) is currently in its R&D phase, so Sony still hasn’t adopted the technology internally.
