Trump sacks US copyright chief after AI copyright report

President Donald Trump dismissed US Copyright Office chief just days after the agency published a report raising questions about the use of copyrighted material in developing artificial intelligence, US media reported Saturday.

Shira Perlmutter, who led the office since 2020, was removed shortly after the release of the third part of a report on AI and copyright, according to CBS News.

The report warned that while data is central to AI training, the benefits of ever-larger datasets may not be proportionate.

"It is an open question, however, how much data an AI developer needs, and the marginal effect of more data on a model's capabilities," the report said.

Democratic lawmaker Joe Morelle called the decision "a brazen, unprecedented power grab with no legal basis," and claimed it followed Perlmutter's reluctance to support tech billionaire Elon Musk's push to use copyrighted works to train AI systems.

Trump has broken precedent in firing a number of agency heads and board members before their tenure was concluded, steps critics say were nakedly partisan and violated rules prescribing how such changes can be made.

Trump's top campaign donor Musk, who owns AI firm xAI and social platform X, has criticized existing intellectual property laws. He failed in a previous attempt this year to acquire OpenAI.

The US Copyright Office, under the Library of Congress, is responsible for copyright registrations and enforcement across the country.

Authors, artists, and media outlets have objected to using their copyrighted works to train AI, saying it amounts to stealing their property to reap profits.