The Human Perspective in Gen AI Input and Output

Seminar organized by the Innovation Law and Ethics Observatory (ILEO)

Speakers:

  • Prof. Christophe Geiger (Director of ILEO; Full Professor at Luiss Guido Carli)
  • Francesca Di Lazzaro (Member of ILEO; PhD Candidate at Luiss Guido Carli)
  • Štěpánka Havlíková (Visiting Researcher at ILEO; PhD Candidate at Masaryk University)
     
  • Chair: Prof. Christophe Geiger

Date and Time:

April 15, 2025, 4:00 PM.
Room: Classroom 13 - Viale Pola, Luiss Guido Carli
Link

We warmly invite all ILEO members, the broader academic community, and students to join this event and contribute to this enriching exchange.

In-person participation requires registration. To register, please contact: ileo@luiss.it

Abstracts

Sustainability as a Guiding Principle for Copyright Reform? Moral Rights Issues Concerning the Use of Generative AI in Research and Education

Prof. Christophe Geiger and Francesca Di Lazzaro

This research addresses the complex relationship between Generative AI (Gen AI), sustainability, and copyright, with a focus on the use of copyrighted materials for research and education. Gen AI can be transformative by expanding access to content. For example, it can break down language barriers, compile information into vast datasets, and create personalized educational experiences that boost learning motivation, thereby helping to level the playing field in both research and education. These functions contribute to the fulfillment of the right to education as outlined in the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) (specifically, SDG No. 4) and the right to research, as enshrined in the human rights framework. On the other hand, Gen AI output poses risks in terms of false or lack of attribution to creators, scientific integrity, and manipulation of works, thereby prejudicing the moral interests of authors, which are also part of the human rights framework. This article offers some preliminary suggestions on how sustainability can be used as a guiding principle to strike the right balance between facilitating access to knowledge for education and research and respecting the moral rights of authors when dealing with Gen AI. The two pillars of this approach are the establishment of a transparent and “human-centric” copyright framework to regulate Gen AI, as well as an appropriate governance structure that can readily provide recourse in cases of moral rights violations that would be detrimental to research, education, and ethical innovation more broadly.

The publication is available in open access at: https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=5191571

 

Technical Challenges of Rightsholders Opting Out of Gen AI Training

Štěpánka Havlíková

The Robert Kneschke v. LAION decision has sparked new debates on the legality of training generative AI using publicly available data, which is often copyrighted. While text and data mining (TDM) exceptions offer a potential legal pathway, their practical implementation encounters the barrier of technical limitations — such as the lack of standardized machine-readable opt-outs or the technical limitations of existing opt-out methods. Although a global market standard may be expected soon, given the upcoming regulation of general-purpose AI models through the EU AI Act, such a solution still offers only a binary choice to allow or disallow AI training, with no scalable licensing option (beyond individual deals with major licensors). Instead, solutions like machine-readable licensing or collective management could offer a balanced compromise between protecting rights holders and fostering AI development.

The publication is available in open access at: https://www.jipitec.eu/jipitec/article/view/422

Program

  • 4:00 PM – 4:10 PM Chair and introduction
    Christophe Geiger, Professor of Law and Director of the Innovation Law and Ethics Observatory, Luiss, Rome
  • 4:10 PM – 4:30 PM Sustainability as a Guiding Principle for Copyright Reform? Moral Rights Issues Concerning the Use of Generative AI in Research and Education
    Christophe Geiger, Professor of Law and Director of the Innovation Law and Ethics Observatory, Luiss, Rome
    Francesca Di Lazzaro, PhD Candidate and Member of the Innovation Law and Ethics Observatory, Luiss, Rome
  • 4:30 PM – 4:50 PM Technical Challenges of Rightsholders' Opt-out From Gen AI Training
    Štěpánka Havlíková, Visiting Researcher at the Innovation Law and Ethics Observatory and PhD Candidate, Masaryk University, Brno
  • 4:50 PM – 5:15 PM Discussion

About the Speakers

Prof. Christophe Geiger,
Professor of Law and Director of the Innovation Law and Ethics Observatory, Luiss, Rome
Email: cgeiger@luiss.it

Christophe Geiger is a Professor of Law at Luiss Guido Carli University and the Director and founder of the Innovation Law and Ethics Observatory (ILEO). Prior to his appointment at Luiss, he taught at the Centre for International Intellectual Property Studies (CEIPI) at the University of Strasbourg (France), where he served as Director General and Director of the Research Department for 11 years. In addition, he is a Spangenberg Fellow in Law & Technology at the Spangenberg Center for Law, Technology & the Arts at Case Western Reserve University School of Law. He was an affiliated senior research fellow at the Max Planck Institute for Innovation and Competition in Munich, Germany, from 2008 to 2022, and served as President of ATRIP, the International Association for the Advancement of Teaching and Research in Intellectual Property, from 2022 to 2024.

Francesca Di Lazzaro,
PhD Candidate and Member of the Innovation Law and Ethics Observatory, Luiss, Rome
Email: dilazzarof@luiss.it

Francesca Di Lazzaro graduated summa cum laude in Law from Luiss Guido Carli University, with a thesis on comparative copyright law. In 2018, she earned a Second Level Master's in Competition and Innovation Law from Luiss Guido Carli University, graduating summa cum laude. Francesca is currently a PhD candidate at Luiss Guido Carli University. Her research aims to define sustainable copyright and how to achieve it, starting with an analysis of the Sustainable Development Goals as a theoretical framework. She is also exploring how artificial intelligence can contribute to achieving sustainable development. The title of her thesis is “Connecting the Dots Between Copyright and Sustainable Development Goals: A Roadmap for Sustainable Copyright.”

Štěpánka Havlíková

Visiting Researcher at the Innovation Law and Ethics Observatory and PhD Candidate, Institute of Law and Technology at Masaryk University, Brno
Email: Stepanka.Havlikova@dentons.com

Štěpánka Havlíková is a PhD candidate at the Institute of Law and Technology at Masaryk University and a Senior Associate at the Dentons law firm. She is currently seconded to a global developer of AI models, providing advice on AI and data privacy. Her dissertation research focuses on web scraping for AI training from the perspective of EU copyright law. Štěpánka regularly publishes and speaks at conferences on text and data mining and EU copyright exceptions for TDM. Štěpánka also lectures at the Czech Technical University, Charles University in Prague, and Masaryk University in Brno. In her legal practice, Štěpánka focuses on the Technology, Media & Telecommunications sector (TMT), specializing in artificial intelligence, intellectual property, software and licensing, data privacy, digitalization, as well as technology transactions and tech-related disputes.