1 00:00:00,129 --> 00:00:07,138 Hey, so recently I was invited to weigh in on a pretty interesting LinkedIn post. 2 00:00:07,484 --> 00:00:12,644 It was regarding AI, of course, and the poster asked, is 3 00:00:12,714 --> 00:00:15,701 plagiarizing AI, Plagiarism. 4 00:00:16,104 --> 00:00:22,694 So in other words, if you use AI, but don't give credit to AI, is that 5 00:00:22,724 --> 00:00:29,501 plagiarism and the poster used an AI generated response as the jumping 6 00:00:29,521 --> 00:00:34,904 off point for this discussion that AI generated response reads as follows. 7 00:00:35,070 --> 00:00:38,566 Using artificial intelligence to write essays and articles 8 00:00:38,666 --> 00:00:40,616 is considered plagiarism. 9 00:00:40,922 --> 00:00:45,443 Plagiarism is defined as representing someone else's work as your own 10 00:00:45,453 --> 00:00:47,503 without giving proper credit. 11 00:00:47,813 --> 00:00:51,193 So in the opinion of the poster, the answer is yes. 12 00:00:51,560 --> 00:00:57,428 In my opinion, the answer is no, and I will give you my reasoning behind 13 00:00:57,458 --> 00:01:00,175 that at the end of this episode. 14 00:01:00,375 --> 00:01:05,688 But as you know, all about copyright infringement, copyright protection 15 00:01:05,748 --> 00:01:10,318 and preventing copyright infringement and less so about plagiarism, but 16 00:01:10,318 --> 00:01:11,888 I do have some thoughts about that. 17 00:01:12,175 --> 00:01:15,855 I did think this was a great time to have a conversation about the differences 18 00:01:15,855 --> 00:01:17,405 between copyright infringement. 19 00:01:17,541 --> 00:01:21,221 And plagiarism because people often confuse the two. 20 00:01:21,389 --> 00:01:24,795 And in fact, I think that was why I was invited into a conversation 21 00:01:24,985 --> 00:01:27,725 about plagiarism, which is not something I typically address. 22 00:01:28,010 --> 00:01:33,559 So while copyright infringement and plagiarism do have some overlap, they 23 00:01:33,559 --> 00:01:37,029 present separate legal and ethical considerations and implications. 24 00:01:37,295 --> 00:01:39,835 So let's first talk about copyright infringement. 25 00:01:40,055 --> 00:01:40,235 U. 26 00:01:40,235 --> 00:01:40,385 S. 27 00:01:40,405 --> 00:01:45,752 copyright law grants the creator, the human creator of an original 28 00:01:45,762 --> 00:01:50,709 work, exclusive rights to use and distribute its creation. 29 00:01:50,927 --> 00:01:54,995 So the rights that you have exclusive right to under copyright law, the 30 00:01:55,035 --> 00:01:59,702 right to reproduce, the right to distribute the work, to perform it. 31 00:01:59,829 --> 00:02:04,935 to publicly display it, to create derivative works from it, and you have 32 00:02:04,935 --> 00:02:09,652 exclusive right to grant others the right to do any of those things with it. 33 00:02:09,672 --> 00:02:13,275 So if somebody wants to do those things, they can only get that permission 34 00:02:13,315 --> 00:02:15,475 from you as a copyright owner. 35 00:02:15,793 --> 00:02:20,483 copyright infringement occurs whenever someone does one of those exclusive 36 00:02:20,616 --> 00:02:23,766 things that are exclusive rights to you without your permission. 37 00:02:24,029 --> 00:02:30,799 We have copyright infringement and it is a legal violation and it can result 38 00:02:30,829 --> 00:02:34,509 in civil as well as criminal penalties. 39 00:02:34,792 --> 00:02:40,841 Some examples of copyright infringement, reproducing some or all of a book 40 00:02:40,841 --> 00:02:46,154 without permission of the author, posting a copy of a movie to YouTube, 41 00:02:46,164 --> 00:02:48,484 which, happens without authorization. 42 00:02:48,779 --> 00:02:52,751 I recently, I mean, YouTube's been around, I didn't know what the big deal was. 43 00:02:52,751 --> 00:02:54,491 And I recently discovered what the big deal is. 44 00:02:54,491 --> 00:02:55,471 And now I'm a huge fan. 45 00:02:55,641 --> 00:03:00,209 and I will say that what has gotten my attention are these YouTube, are they 46 00:03:00,209 --> 00:03:04,201 called commentators, I guess, where they, take clips from, It's always 47 00:03:04,221 --> 00:03:08,225 reality television, what comes to my attention reality television, they do 48 00:03:08,225 --> 00:03:10,715 this commentary over what was being said. 49 00:03:10,825 --> 00:03:15,862 And there was 1 in particular, it was like a pop psychologist. 50 00:03:16,003 --> 00:03:21,025 And so he was taking these clips from this, reality television shows, and then. 51 00:03:21,200 --> 00:03:25,393 kind of putting his pop psych spin on it and apparently he got in 52 00:03:25,413 --> 00:03:29,080 some trouble about it because, I think His channel was demonetized. 53 00:03:29,287 --> 00:03:33,813 And so now he has to, like, do these really funky things with the images 54 00:03:33,863 --> 00:03:36,997 so that he's not, committing copyright infringement when he kind of does like. 55 00:03:37,260 --> 00:03:41,230 Half the screen or something, or in order to not, infringe copyrights. 56 00:03:41,230 --> 00:03:45,610 But yeah, you can't use even clips from TV shows without permission, 57 00:03:45,947 --> 00:03:47,677 danger of copyright infringement. 58 00:03:47,944 --> 00:03:53,044 the other example is using a photograph, on your website without permission. 59 00:03:53,310 --> 00:03:55,110 You do need to have a license for that. 60 00:03:55,194 --> 00:04:00,320 Even if you found it online, it requires the consent of the copyright 61 00:04:00,360 --> 00:04:03,000 owner to use that photograph. 62 00:04:03,198 --> 00:04:08,923 And Music, integrating music into a presentation, into a video on, 63 00:04:08,989 --> 00:04:10,569 the introduction of the podcast. 64 00:04:10,703 --> 00:04:14,966 I have a license for the music, for the intro and outro music. 65 00:04:14,976 --> 00:04:18,879 Cause that is someone's, work, and I need consent to use it. 66 00:04:19,130 --> 00:04:20,050 on the other hand. 67 00:04:20,430 --> 00:04:26,093 Plagiarism is the act of using someone else's work or ideas 68 00:04:26,400 --> 00:04:32,225 without proper attribution and presenting those ideas as your own. 69 00:04:32,469 --> 00:04:37,605 Plagiarism is considered an ethical violation, unlike copyright 70 00:04:37,735 --> 00:04:40,515 infringement, which is a legal violation. 71 00:04:40,678 --> 00:04:43,328 However, it is not without consequences. 72 00:04:43,921 --> 00:04:48,191 Probably all of us first became aware plagiarism in school when 73 00:04:48,191 --> 00:04:52,725 we were told that we have to give proper attribution to our sources. 74 00:04:52,735 --> 00:04:53,605 They remember those. 75 00:04:53,635 --> 00:04:57,588 I mean, it's been a long time for me, but when we did those reports, 76 00:04:57,588 --> 00:05:01,345 we had to make sure we, gave credit to where we, got materials. 77 00:05:01,375 --> 00:05:05,298 And, uh, if we took something, , out of an encyclopedia. 78 00:05:05,806 --> 00:05:07,971 And, giving credit to where it came from. 79 00:05:08,164 --> 00:05:11,334 so even if I wasn't going to get in trouble if I, stole something out of 80 00:05:11,394 --> 00:05:14,788 the encyclopedia without giving credit to it, but that would be plagiarism and 81 00:05:14,788 --> 00:05:17,138 that would have academic consequences. 82 00:05:17,138 --> 00:05:17,428 Right? 83 00:05:17,718 --> 00:05:22,104 And so it also now in our professional lives, it can have professional as 84 00:05:22,104 --> 00:05:24,074 well as reputational consequences. 85 00:05:24,215 --> 00:05:29,239 If we are stealing other people's ideas and passing them off as our own. 86 00:05:29,433 --> 00:05:33,246 And so it, of course, you as we're developing our reputations, 87 00:05:33,246 --> 00:05:37,259 developing our brands, our voices, our thought leadership, we do not 88 00:05:37,259 --> 00:05:39,909 want to be in the plagiarism business. 89 00:05:40,009 --> 00:05:44,523 Even if we do not end up with, statutory damages as a result. 90 00:05:44,656 --> 00:05:49,169 you can absolutely have major reputational and professional consequences. 91 00:05:49,522 --> 00:05:55,653 To committing plagiarism, some examples of plagiarism, copying and pasting texts 92 00:05:55,803 --> 00:05:58,309 from a source without proper citation. 93 00:05:58,309 --> 00:06:01,429 The one that we know of from school, paraphrasing somebody 94 00:06:01,449 --> 00:06:03,969 else's ideas without giving credit. 95 00:06:04,116 --> 00:06:06,266 That's probably going to be more applicable to what we're 96 00:06:06,266 --> 00:06:09,796 doing in these days as we're developing our thought leadership. 97 00:06:10,261 --> 00:06:14,988 Submitting someone else's work as our own, that might even fall into the 98 00:06:14,988 --> 00:06:19,864 crossover there and then failing to acknowledge collaborators or co authors. 99 00:06:20,084 --> 00:06:23,961 I do want to drill into this 1 because, you know, I have done a number of 100 00:06:23,961 --> 00:06:27,251 presentations about what the copyright. 101 00:06:27,564 --> 00:06:31,174 issues are surrounding collaborations and co authorship. 102 00:06:31,341 --> 00:06:36,948 So why does failing to acknowledge a co author fall under plagiarism, 103 00:06:37,038 --> 00:06:39,218 but not under copyright infringement? 104 00:06:39,364 --> 00:06:43,298 Well, recall that a co author, each co author, I'm just going to use, 105 00:06:43,318 --> 00:06:44,958 let's say there's 2 co authors. 106 00:06:45,228 --> 00:06:51,179 Each co author owns 100 percent of the copyright in that co authored 107 00:06:51,179 --> 00:06:55,773 work, and it's not just, you know, 100 percent plus 100 percent equals 200%. 108 00:06:55,803 --> 00:07:01,996 It's just each co author has 100 percent of the rights in that work, 109 00:07:02,108 --> 00:07:06,609 so it can do all of those things that I mentioned above, perform, 110 00:07:06,609 --> 00:07:09,319 display, create derivatives, give other people's rights to do it. 111 00:07:09,329 --> 00:07:12,431 They can do each of them separately without the copyright. 112 00:07:12,518 --> 00:07:16,104 The consent of the other, that's why it's percent because they don't need 113 00:07:16,104 --> 00:07:17,684 to get consent from the other person. 114 00:07:17,905 --> 00:07:22,065 what I could do is I have a coauthor of a work. 115 00:07:22,272 --> 00:07:25,692 I can publish it because I have not exclusive rights. 116 00:07:25,692 --> 00:07:28,052 I have a hundred percent rights to do it without permission from 117 00:07:28,052 --> 00:07:30,169 my coauthor and not give credit. 118 00:07:30,464 --> 00:07:31,634 To my co author. 119 00:07:31,780 --> 00:07:33,350 So is that a copyright infringement? 120 00:07:33,390 --> 00:07:35,480 No, because I have the rights to do that. 121 00:07:35,757 --> 00:07:37,067 But is that plagiarism? 122 00:07:38,131 --> 00:07:43,068 Yes, because I am not giving my co author credit for her contribution 123 00:07:43,170 --> 00:07:44,808 to that co authored work. 124 00:07:45,028 --> 00:07:49,611 So the main differences just in a nutshell, copyright infringement. 125 00:07:49,771 --> 00:07:55,498 Is a violation of legal rights granted by copyright law or as plagiarism 126 00:07:55,528 --> 00:07:59,698 is a breach of the ethical standards that we would expect an academic 127 00:07:59,708 --> 00:08:05,285 professional, reputational, spheres, related to honesty and integrity. 128 00:08:05,497 --> 00:08:09,320 even if no law is broken, there's different kind of 129 00:08:09,457 --> 00:08:11,117 bodies that deal with this. 130 00:08:11,391 --> 00:08:15,370 If it is a copyright infringement, of course, we have access to the court 131 00:08:15,370 --> 00:08:20,569 system and other legal remedies, assuming it's registered, and, Courts for if 132 00:08:20,569 --> 00:08:23,569 it's registered, there are other legal remedies, even if it isn't registered. 133 00:08:23,709 --> 00:08:26,859 whereas our plagiarism, that's going to be handled one by 134 00:08:26,859 --> 00:08:28,349 the court of public opinion. 135 00:08:28,503 --> 00:08:32,403 if people find out that you steal people's ideas and also there can 136 00:08:32,403 --> 00:08:36,651 be real significant consequences in the academic setting, certainly 137 00:08:36,786 --> 00:08:42,148 maybe suspension expulsion, failing a class, in the professional realm, 138 00:08:42,321 --> 00:08:45,951 people distrust you, they wonder, they don't want to work with you. 139 00:08:46,141 --> 00:08:50,461 maybe you lose a job because you represented yourself as being the 140 00:08:50,471 --> 00:08:54,984 author of something that you weren't or that you, bringing some ideas to 141 00:08:55,024 --> 00:08:56,804 an engagement that aren't your own. 142 00:08:57,068 --> 00:09:00,129 And just general reputational harm that can come from that. 143 00:09:00,349 --> 00:09:04,036 And then the protections that are available to us are different. 144 00:09:04,222 --> 00:09:08,862 we register our copyrights, in order to make sure that we are protecting. 145 00:09:09,049 --> 00:09:10,369 are expressions. 146 00:09:10,546 --> 00:09:15,042 copyright does not protect ideas, but it protects the expression 147 00:09:15,042 --> 00:09:20,586 of the idea, what we wrote, what we recorded, what we painted. 148 00:09:20,819 --> 00:09:25,469 but, plagiarism does protect our ideas as well. 149 00:09:25,612 --> 00:09:27,522 So where is the intersection? 150 00:09:27,542 --> 00:09:33,142 So the intersection comes when We steal someone's expression. 151 00:09:33,172 --> 00:09:36,046 So we literally take some of those rights. 152 00:09:36,306 --> 00:09:40,656 you know, someone write something and we lift it up and we put our name on 153 00:09:40,656 --> 00:09:42,906 it and we distribute it as our own. 154 00:09:43,052 --> 00:09:44,932 That is both a copyright infringement. 155 00:09:45,075 --> 00:09:47,902 and plagiarism and by the way, you can have copyright infringement 156 00:09:47,902 --> 00:09:52,294 without plagiarism, just to be clear, like, if you take somebody else's 157 00:09:52,294 --> 00:09:56,581 work, you give them full credit for and people do get confused by that. 158 00:09:56,591 --> 00:10:01,391 Like, I'm giving them credit, but they still must give you permission. 159 00:10:01,618 --> 00:10:02,958 To distribute it. 160 00:10:03,018 --> 00:10:07,464 So the fact that you gave me credit does not negate the copyright infringement 161 00:10:07,464 --> 00:10:10,768 if I have not given you permission to distribute it regardless of the 162 00:10:10,768 --> 00:10:12,678 credit that you may give to me. 163 00:10:12,934 --> 00:10:14,664 So that would be plagiarism. 164 00:10:14,898 --> 00:10:17,831 copyright infringement without plagiarism when I give credit, 165 00:10:17,831 --> 00:10:19,501 but I don't have permission. 166 00:10:19,664 --> 00:10:24,518 And then I can also have plagiarism without a copyright infringement when I 167 00:10:24,538 --> 00:10:28,228 take someone's ideas, because ideas are not eligible for copyright infringement. 168 00:10:28,353 --> 00:10:32,483 Protection or even if we were to take something in the public domain 169 00:10:32,663 --> 00:10:34,763 because there are some things that might be in the public domain, 170 00:10:34,793 --> 00:10:36,303 like something that's very old. 171 00:10:36,303 --> 00:10:39,813 Like, I could take an unpublished work of Shakespeare. 172 00:10:39,813 --> 00:10:42,831 I don't know what, you know, and say, like, look what I did. 173 00:10:42,851 --> 00:10:46,321 it's not protected by copyright law anymore, but that would obviously be 174 00:10:46,321 --> 00:10:48,261 plagiarism if I slap my name on there. 175 00:10:48,478 --> 00:10:52,934 the tried and true best practices to make sure we neither infringe nor 176 00:10:52,934 --> 00:10:58,181 plagiarize, always get permission to use content that you do not own. 177 00:10:58,181 --> 00:11:01,184 If you're taking the content, assume it is copyrighted. 178 00:11:01,478 --> 00:11:04,074 If it's intangible form, you're finding it in writing, you're finding it in 179 00:11:04,094 --> 00:11:05,757 the internet, it's intangible form. 180 00:11:05,994 --> 00:11:10,824 And unless you know that it is in the public domain, because you know, it is 181 00:11:11,004 --> 00:11:16,202 AI generated, or, you know, that it is, 1 of the categories of public domain. 182 00:11:16,202 --> 00:11:17,749 I talk about that a lot too. 183 00:11:17,899 --> 00:11:21,149 then you want to make sure you get permission to use it. 184 00:11:21,372 --> 00:11:26,525 Get use proper attribution, if you're talking about, purple cows, I'm going 185 00:11:26,525 --> 00:11:29,795 to assume that was originally Seth go inside and I could be wrong about that. 186 00:11:30,005 --> 00:11:33,055 make sure you're giving attribution to where you're getting the ideas 187 00:11:33,378 --> 00:11:35,458 about blue oceans or things like that. 188 00:11:35,775 --> 00:11:37,145 cite your sources. 189 00:11:37,517 --> 00:11:43,613 I'm sure everyone here has had plenty of experience, writing research papers, using 190 00:11:43,623 --> 00:11:47,506 third party sources and make sure you're studying your sources and sometimes it 191 00:11:47,506 --> 00:11:53,430 happens, accidentally, certainly if we are using AI materials, we want to make sure 192 00:11:53,450 --> 00:11:59,170 that, They haven't kicked out something that might show up on a plagiarism checker 193 00:11:59,330 --> 00:12:03,774 as being plagiarism and I'm going to talk about why I don't think it's plagiarism 194 00:12:03,784 --> 00:12:09,356 still, It will damage your reputation if you are using ideas that aren't your own. 195 00:12:09,406 --> 00:12:14,554 so let's get to my hot take about why I think AI isn't plagiarism, despite 196 00:12:14,704 --> 00:12:19,954 what I just said, because there is kind of the loose notion of not plagiarism. 197 00:12:20,230 --> 00:12:23,910 Taking other people's ideas as your own, and I don't endorse it. 198 00:12:24,264 --> 00:12:25,814 I think it's a bad idea. 199 00:12:25,884 --> 00:12:27,004 I don't want you to do it. 200 00:12:27,124 --> 00:12:33,074 But I think as an ethical issue that plagiarism has 2 purposes. 201 00:12:33,510 --> 00:12:34,540 The 1st purpose. 202 00:12:34,884 --> 00:12:41,237 Is to make sure that the originator of the idea gets proper credit for it. 203 00:12:41,237 --> 00:12:45,674 It is the product of their own intellect, their own expertise, their own deep 204 00:12:45,734 --> 00:12:47,534 thinking, their own thought leadership. 205 00:12:47,721 --> 00:12:49,901 That is side 1 of the. 206 00:12:50,086 --> 00:12:54,280 two sided coins of plagiarism is making sure that the originator of 207 00:12:54,290 --> 00:12:59,980 the idea is properly credited for the product of their intellect. 208 00:13:00,176 --> 00:13:05,156 The other side is to make sure that the plagiarist, I think that's a word, 209 00:13:05,256 --> 00:13:07,026 the person who commits plagiarism. 210 00:13:07,178 --> 00:13:10,128 Doesn't get credit for that idea. 211 00:13:10,128 --> 00:13:12,398 It should not be part of their body of work. 212 00:13:12,398 --> 00:13:16,018 It should not be included in a thought leadership because that's not their idea. 213 00:13:16,028 --> 00:13:18,588 And by the way, I'm not talking about copyright infringement here at all. 214 00:13:18,671 --> 00:13:22,448 I am talking about ideas and said that they're not getting 215 00:13:22,448 --> 00:13:24,658 credit for someone else's ideas. 216 00:13:24,658 --> 00:13:28,459 It's not the product of their deep thinking product of their expertise. 217 00:13:28,459 --> 00:13:30,143 They've taken it from somebody else. 218 00:13:30,371 --> 00:13:35,809 And so those are the two sides to me of the ethical considerations 219 00:13:35,809 --> 00:13:38,789 where we're thinking about, really condemning someone in the 220 00:13:38,789 --> 00:13:41,356 professional setting for plagiarism. 221 00:13:41,633 --> 00:13:48,139 for the first side, The originator getting credit for their ideas 222 00:13:48,319 --> 00:13:52,756 for the use of their intellect, that simply doesn't apply to AI. 223 00:13:52,920 --> 00:13:58,697 When AI is the creator of the content, then there is no ethical 224 00:13:58,697 --> 00:14:06,422 obligation to make sure that AI gets credit for its ideas it. 225 00:14:06,542 --> 00:14:08,282 Even have any ideas, right? 226 00:14:08,282 --> 00:14:11,155 Or is it just an algorithm of some sort, whatever the magic 227 00:14:11,155 --> 00:14:12,975 is that happens inside of, ai. 228 00:14:13,165 --> 00:14:19,035 so does it get the respect that we want to, reserve for. 229 00:14:19,196 --> 00:14:24,287 The true creators of ideas is a, I get that kind of respect that plagiarism 230 00:14:24,327 --> 00:14:29,977 is intended to prevent and my answer to that is no, that it is not intended 231 00:14:29,977 --> 00:14:34,707 to do that on the other side of the plagiarism coin to make sure that the. 232 00:14:34,841 --> 00:14:40,812 Person who plagiarizes doesn't get to include those ideas in their own body 233 00:14:40,812 --> 00:14:43,052 of work as their own thought leadership. 234 00:14:43,205 --> 00:14:49,149 And personally, what is coming out of AI, AI generated content, nothing that's got, 235 00:14:49,159 --> 00:14:54,789 I've seen this come out of AI is even close to being worthy of being some big 236 00:14:54,789 --> 00:14:56,684 idea that is worthy of being included. 237 00:14:56,684 --> 00:15:00,990 Being, in someone's, body of work, I mean, most of what's coming out of 238 00:15:00,990 --> 00:15:05,534 AI, that's, you know, maybe they're, writing a blog post or, doing an outline 239 00:15:05,534 --> 00:15:06,894 or making some social media posts. 240 00:15:06,894 --> 00:15:09,690 I'm not saying that it can't be more sophisticated, the more 241 00:15:09,690 --> 00:15:11,140 that you work with it, but. 242 00:15:11,285 --> 00:15:18,295 generally what is being generated by AI is a regurgitation of, a mishmash 243 00:15:18,295 --> 00:15:21,469 of ideas that are already out there, that they're just kind of coming 244 00:15:21,469 --> 00:15:23,569 together to try to spit something out. 245 00:15:23,802 --> 00:15:28,695 It's been my experience and that is literally it's function, is to take 246 00:15:28,905 --> 00:15:30,795 the ideas that are already out there 247 00:15:31,005 --> 00:15:34,765 And, create something serviceable, that's assuming it's not hallucinating. 248 00:15:34,765 --> 00:15:38,365 I mean, I guess we could call original, but typically that means 249 00:15:38,365 --> 00:15:40,635 it's just, flawed or inaccurate. 250 00:15:40,857 --> 00:15:43,467 so in my opinion, neither. 251 00:15:43,612 --> 00:15:48,900 Purpose of, why the ethical consequences of plagiarism are so, real and severe. 252 00:15:49,029 --> 00:15:53,324 Neither of those purposes are met when we're talking about AI generated content. 253 00:15:53,537 --> 00:15:57,204 We're not trying to protect the originator of the ideas, which is AI. 254 00:15:57,214 --> 00:15:58,054 That's not. 255 00:15:58,222 --> 00:16:01,112 To me why we have ethical condemnation of plagiarism. 256 00:16:01,285 --> 00:16:07,219 And there's also, if you are using AI as part of your thought leadership, that's 257 00:16:07,309 --> 00:16:09,502 some pretty poor thought leadership. 258 00:16:09,726 --> 00:16:13,843 we're now also not benefiting from stealing somebody else's big ideas 259 00:16:13,863 --> 00:16:15,113 when the big ideas came from AI. 260 00:16:15,553 --> 00:16:16,803 So them's me thoughts. 261 00:16:17,130 --> 00:16:18,610 Let me know what you think. 262 00:16:18,700 --> 00:16:20,080 And, join me again. 263 00:16:20,308 --> 00:16:21,570 Remember IP is fuel. 264 00:16:21,740 --> 00:16:22,340 Thanks guys.