On the evening of October 29, 2024, UNCITRAL Asia Pacific Day Memorial Lecture & BNU International Expert Lecture Series (Number 8) was successfully held at the Law School of Beijing Normal University.
Professor Xue Hong of the Law School of Beijing Normal University introduced that BNU, as one of the CLOUT Partner Organizations, had been working closely with UNCITRAL, including presenting at the UNCITRAL Seminar on Development of Electronic Transferable Records and Electronic Bills of Lading held in Dalian May 2024 and the CLOUT virtual networking meeting in November 2024. Prof. Xue also elaborates the newest Model Law on Automatic Contracting and other Model Laws developed by UNCITRAL over 2023-2024.
Prof. Xue then invite Mr. Gustavo Ghidini, Honorary Professor of the University of Milan, Senior Professor of Intellectual Property and Competition Law at the LUISS University of Rome, and former President of the International Association for the Promotion of Intellectual Property Teaching and Research, to give the keynote speech.
Prof. Gustavo Ghidini delved into the impact of the European Artificial Intelligence Act and the challenges of AI-generated content to IP. He emphasized the duality of AI systems, distinguishing between systems driven by detailed human instructions and self-generated systems, and noted that AI outputs should not be protected by copyright if they lacked human authorship, advocating a case-by-case approach. At the same time, he discussed the potential conflict between the use of AI training data and existing intellectual property rights, proposing a new intellectual property paradigm that aims to reconcile innovation with fair compensation for data owners. Professor Ghidini emphasized that regulation on AI innovation and the need for the law should keep up with technological advances.
Professor Xue Hong pointed out as the commentator that the Prof. Ghidini’s three-part discussion on AI algorithms, generated content and training data is very insightful and relevant to the auto-contracting process pervasive in digital economy, and his views on the use of training data by artificial intelligence are very enlightening in copyright law, but the proposition of excluding some so-called simple instruction-generated content from copyright protection may only be theoretical hypotheses, lack of feasibility, and is inconsistent with the judicial practice in Europe and China.
The Lecture attracted graduate students and international exchange students from China, Poland, Ethiopia, the Netherlands, and Italy. At the end of the Lecture, two Professors patiently answered the questions of many doctoral students, master-degree students and international exchange students. The healthy academic confrontation and the wonderful interaction between the lecturer and the reviewer aroused the students’ interest in learning, and everyone discussed extensively and thought deeply, and spoke highly of the lecture.