There’s no way to tell how the US court system will respond to comedian Sarah Silverman’s decision to sue ChatGPT for copyright infringement.

That's according to Newstalk Tech Correspondent Jess Kelly, who said OpenAI’s AI system was fed a version of Silverman's book and can now mimic her style of writing. 

Silverman is also suing Meta, saying her book appeared in a dataset of their LLaMa AI system.

Jess told Newstalk Breakfast there is a “fear factor” among many creative people and the threat AI poses. 

“It's not just our content that we’re putting out into the world is being consumed,” she said. “It's being used to train something that could replace us. 

“I could go into ChatGPT now and say, ‘write a 700-page book in the style of Sarah Silverman's book’ and it would use her language, her turns of phrase. 

“It's being used to train and mimic her writing.” 

Webpage of ChatGPT, on the website of OpenAI, on a smartphone. Image: Ted Hsu / Alamy Stock Photo

Jess said she “genuinely” doesn’t know how the lawsuit will go “because it’s such a grey area”. 

“There has been a lot of public opinion on this everyone has a hot take, but we don't know what way the law is going to fall,” she said. 

“That's why a number of months ago there were several prominent people in the world of tech calling for the evolution of AI to be paused until we have a way to feel around it.” 

Artificial background actors

Jess said actors – specifically background actors – are also concerned how AI will affect their creative careers. 

“Producers apparently want to get extras in, scan them, pay them $200, and then reproduce and reuse that one scan of their face,” she explained. 

Emmy-winning TV show Ted Lasso has already used this technique during the COVID-19 pandemic when filming scenes in stadiums, according to Jess. 

“If you watch it really closely, it’s eight and 12 people replicated all over the stadium,” she said. 

“It's useful, but if you're an extra you're going to get paid $200 and then inserted everywhere.”