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The World Ahead | Technology in 2025

The court cases that could shape how AI develops

Prepare for a worldwide wrangle over copyright, deepfakes and more

Illustration of gold scales with AI used as weights
Illustration: Ricardo Tomas

By Tom Wainwright, Technology and media editor, The Economist

Words, pictures, music and now video: generative artificial intelligence (ai) seems like a near-magical tool for creating new and original content in unlimited quantities. Yet to its detractors it is a scam, chewing up human-made, copyrighted work and spewing out pale, derivative imitations. Who is right? In 2025 a combination of litigation and legislation will begin to provide some answers.

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This article appeared in the International section of the print edition of The World Ahead 2025 under the headline “All shook up”

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