In a significant policy shift, the Indian government has stated that major AI developers such as Google, OpenAI, and other large model creators must compensate content owners when using their copyrighted work to train artificial intelligence systems. The directive marks a growing global push for fair use, transparency, and accountability in AI development as governments respond to rising concerns from creators, publishers, and media organisations.

Officials emphasized that while AI innovation is critical to India’s digital progress, it cannot come at the cost of creators whose work forms the backbone of training datasets. The government noted that copyrighted books, news articles, music, code, and audiovisual content are routinely scraped to train large language models and generative AI tools—often without consent or compensation.

The move aligns India with countries like the EU and the U.S., where lawmakers are exploring frameworks that require AI firms to obtain licenses or revenue-share with content producers. Indian policymakers argue that creators must retain control over how their intellectual property is used and must be rewarded for commercial applications built on top of their work.

The government is expected to outline guidelines addressing transparency in dataset sourcing, copyright compliance, consent requirements, and financial compensation mechanisms. Industry experts say this will reshape how AI models are trained and deployed in India, pushing companies toward more ethical data practices.

For creators, the announcement signals a major victory—an acknowledgment that as AI grows, their contributions cannot remain invisible or unpaid.