There's no part of AI that is being swallowed up by copyright. AI companies can ask for permission if they want to train their models on other people's works. It's not that hard, various image hosting sites have already added an opt-in/opt-out toggle to their services. Sites might even get away with using this stuff as compensation for free hosting.
The fact of the matter is that the AI companies don't want to ask for permission, because people will say no. Or worse, ask for attribution or even payment. There is plenty of copyright free/public domain material out there, but what the customers of AI people want isn't available under those terms.
The code to train an AI is not enough to make a product and these people have nothing to add themselves, so they take what others made and use that to make a profit. They can make or pay for their own paintings, their own pictures, their own music, but that would require putting in too much work or paying too much money.
It's very possible that a judge will rule that AI models do not violate copyright. If that is the case, I hope new legislation will correct that oversight very quickly.
The fact of the matter is that the AI companies don't want to ask for permission, because people will say no. Or worse, ask for attribution or even payment. There is plenty of copyright free/public domain material out there, but what the customers of AI people want isn't available under those terms.
The code to train an AI is not enough to make a product and these people have nothing to add themselves, so they take what others made and use that to make a profit. They can make or pay for their own paintings, their own pictures, their own music, but that would require putting in too much work or paying too much money.
It's very possible that a judge will rule that AI models do not violate copyright. If that is the case, I hope new legislation will correct that oversight very quickly.