Trump fires US copyright chief amid AI policy debate
What's the story
US President Donald Trump has fired Shira Perlmutter as the head of the US Copyright Office.
The decision comes just days after her office released a report expressing concerns over the use of copyrighted material to train artificial intelligence (AI) models.
The move has drawn sharp criticism from Democrats, who have accused Trump of executive overreach and meddling in copyright regulation.
Policy concerns
AI policy report questions data usage by AI firms
Perlmutter's ouster comes shortly after her office released part three of a landmark AI policy report, questioning the rationale behind AI companies' mass use of copyrighted data.
The report observed, "It is an open question... how much data an AI developer needs, and the marginal effect of more data on a model's capabilities."
This question on data usage may have led to Perlmutter's ouster.
Disputed dismissal
Librarian of Congress also dismissed amid policy dispute
Perlmutter has headed the Copyright Office since October 2020.
Her appointment came from Carla Hayden, the Librarian of Congress, who was also dismissed by Trump through a two-sentence email last Thursday. Hayden had been on a 10-year Senate-confirmed term.
The White House has not yet issued an official statement on either dismissal, however, internal communications from the Library of Congress have confirmed that Perlmutter's position was terminated on Saturday afternoon.
Political backlash
Representative condemns Perlmutter's dismissal as power grab
Representative Joe Morelle, the top Democrat on the House Administration Committee, has condemned Perlmutter's dismissal as "a brazen, unprecedented power grab with no legal basis."
He hinted that this move was directly related to Perlmutter's refusal to endorse tech billionaire Elon Musk's attempts to access copyrighted content for AI training.
Musk has publicly questioned the legitimacy of intellectual property laws and recently endorsed their elimination in a post on X.
Precedent concerns
Critics warn of dangerous precedent following dismissals
Since returning to the office, Trump has been a staunch supporter of AI initiatives.
He recently announced a $500 billion private-sector joint venture with OpenAI, Softbank, and Oracle to develop national AI infrastructure.
However, critics are warning that the dismissal of both the Librarian of Congress and the Register of Copyrights could set a dangerous precedent.
Morelle questioned when his Republican colleagues would decide that enough is enough in response to these dismissals.