I think people are getting confused between using something and redistributing it. If you train an AI or build a search engine index, or your browser caches a webpage, you're just using it, and it was put on the web so that it can be used, without any restrictions on what for (except perhaps when the permission to even download it is granted conditionally on how you use it as Suleyman mentioned). Copyright restricts copying, not private use. Since it's on the web, there really is an implied permission to use it privately for whatever you want.
The copyright issue only comes up if you publish the output of your model. But if the AI is (somehow) clever enough to never reproduce the source material in any way that counts as copying for the purposes of copyright, then there's no copyright problem making it available to the public.
Some artists assume they have more rights than they really do and that other people aren't even allowed to mimic their style.
The copyright issue only comes up if you publish the output of your model. But if the AI is (somehow) clever enough to never reproduce the source material in any way that counts as copying for the purposes of copyright, then there's no copyright problem making it available to the public.
Some artists assume they have more rights than they really do and that other people aren't even allowed to mimic their style.