Google Unveils IP Indemnity for Generative AI Users

On October 13, 2023, Google Cloud's VP Legal, Neal Suggs, and VP of TI Security & CISO, Phil Venables, unveiled an industry-first two-pronged intellectual property (IP) indemnity initiative aimed at safeguarding users of its generative AI services from potential legal ramifications concerning copyright infringements. This decisive step manifests Google's committed approach toward ensuring its customer's legal security amidst the evolving generative AI landscape, aligning itself with the likes of Microsoft and Adobe who have previously announced similar protective measures.

The indemnity scheme is bifurcated into two distinct segments - Training Data Indemnity and Generated Output Indemnity, each addressing different aspects of IP concerns that may arise from utilizing generative AI technologies provided by Google Cloud.

Under this provision, Google reassures its users against any third-party IP claims arising from the training data employed to develop generative models utilized by Google’s AI services. This isn’t a novel protection but a reinforcement of Google’s ongoing commitment towards indemnifying users against IP infringement allegations related to the training data.

Extending the protective umbrella, this segment covers the output generated by customers while using Google's AI services. In essence, if the generated content, produced in response to customer inputs, triggers any third-party IP claims, Google vows to assume the legal responsibility, provided the users haven’t intentionally infringed upon others’ rights.

This initiative emanates from a proactive stance to mitigate the risks associated with the burgeoning field of generative AI. The products encompassed under this indemnity include Duet AI in Workspace and Google Cloud, Vertex AI Search, Vertex AI Conversation, Vertex AI Text Embedding API, Visual Captioning on Vertex AI, and Codey APIs. However, the Bard search tool was notably absent from this list.

The indemnity structure is not just a protective shield but also an invitation for open discourse with customers to understand and address other potential use-case-specific coverage necessities.

Similar to Google, Microsoft has also pledged to assume legal onus for their respective enterprise users.