Press Release

Association of American Publishers Files Comments to Inform White House AI Plan

Response Highlights Copyright as Key Part of American Leadership Worldwide

The Association of American Publishers (AAP) today responded to a request for information from the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) on development of the Administration’s Artificial Intelligence (AI) Action Plan.

AAP’s submission calls on the Administration to prioritize copyright protections, promote partnerships between American companies, embrace and encourage licensing, reject bloated fair use arguments and other sweeping exceptions that would unjustly enrich tech companies at the expense of authors and publishers, denounce the use of pirate sites in AI training, and work with Congress to prioritize transparency requirements.

“The United States is an unmatched leader in both technology and intellectual property, both of which are key to global AI markets,” commented Maria A. Pallante, President and CEO, Association of American Publishers. “We thank the White House for the opportunity to inform its action plan and look forward to working with all parts of the Administration to ensure that authors, publishers, and all creative sectors are protected and positioned to partner with AI developers to achieve the extraordinary benefits of AI for the long term, in safe and lawful fashion. Among our priorities is stopping the proliferation of pirate sites that are a scourge on American IP investments and an illegal source of AI development.”

Key Excerpts from the AAP Submission Include:

• The United States has an opportunity to protect and incentivize creators and innovators alike, not only by responsibly advancing the potential of AI, but also by advancing marketplace licensing for creative and intellectual content, based on strong copyright protections that will continue to promote partnerships between the publishing and technology sectors.
• The publishing industry is excited about investing in and using AI tools at this new and significant moment for technology and content.  At the same time, we are concerned about the equally critical, long-term vitality of the nation’s copyright laws, which have long been the foundation of both creativity and innovation in this country.  
• American publishers drive the most economically successful publishing market in the world, producing revenue of nearly 30 billion dollars annually in the United States alone. We are a key part of the broader U.S. copyright industries, many of which produce news, education, and entertainment content based on books, and which collectively added more than $2.09 trillion in annual value to U.S. gross domestic product.
• By upholding U.S. intellectual property—including the copyright laws that protect and incentivize the ongoing investments of publishers and authors— the United States can signal to other nations that they must not weaken their own copyright laws.  Were other countries to do so, they would be undermining American intellectual property exports and harming our creative industries.  At stake are the livelihoods of all creators who have helped to make the United States the leading voice on intellectual property in the digital age, and who are integral to the future success of lawful AI products.
• Licensing helps feed copyright commerce worldwide for American creators. It incentivizes creativity and supports continued investment in new human-created works and the robust information economy we enjoy today. Licensing also produces critical benefits for AI developers: it incentivizes data collection and cleaning, it fuels investment in producing the next generation of high-quality training materials, and it enables startups and market entrants to compete on factors other than the ability to collect the most data.
• The White House must reject Big Tech’s calls for sweeping exceptions to copyright, including a bloated fair use defense and an unworkable “opt-out” regime, which would dismantle centuries of copyright law and destroy evolving licensing markets and future IP investment.
• As the White House drives AI leadership, the country has a pivotal opportunity to strengthen its opposition to pirate sites and denounce the use of pirate repositories to create AI training datasets. Such conduct is clearly illegal, risks proliferation by other countries, and serves as an obstacle to the private sector’s ability to innovate in AI.

About the AI Action Plan

The AI Plan, which is being developed in response to a January 23, 2025 executive order, will define the priority policy actions needed to sustain and enhance America’s AI dominance.

The complete text of AAP’s reply comments can be found here.

About AAP

AAP | The Association of American Publishers represents the leading book, journal, and education publishers in the United States on matters of law and policy, advocating for outcomes that incentivize and protect works of authorship and the creative, intellectual, and financial investments that make them possible. As essential participants in local markets and the global economy, our members invest in and inspire the exchange of ideas, transforming the world we live in one word at a time. Find us online at www.publishers.org or on Twitter and Instagram at @AmericanPublish.