Title: Protecting the moral rights of the author in the process of machine learning in the era of AI: a case study on ChatGPT

Authors: Ibrahim M. Obeidat; Adnan S. Alomar; Naeem A. Al otoum; Ahmad Zaqibh

Addresses: Faculty of Law, Yarmouk University, Irbid, 21163, Jordan ' Faculty of Law, Yarmouk University, Irbid, 21163, Jordan ' Faculty of Law, Yarmouk University, Irbid, 21163, Jordan ' Faculty of Law, Yarmouk University, Irbid, 21163, Jordan

Abstract: This study focuses on the legal aspects of the effects resulting from the use and exploitation of works in machine learning for training ChatGPT. We will concentrate on two key areas: the first addresses the mechanism of machine learning and its implications for the moral rights of authors, while the second discusses the legitimacy of developers using these works in machine learning. To achieve the desired outcomes in this research, we adopted the criterion of balance between the author's rights and the public's right to benefit from these works, along with the resulting exceptions to the legal protection of the author's rights that lawmakers seek to establish to achieve this balance. The study concludes that the machine in ChatGPT relies on intellectual works during its learning phase, which may lead to infringements of moral rights, such as failing to credit the author of the utilised work or damaging their reputation and honour during this phase. In certain cases, infringement may not occur if it aligns with legitimate use or falls within the exceptions established by the legislator.

Keywords: copyrights; moral rights; artificial intelligence; machine learning; ChatGPT.

DOI: 10.1504/IJEG.2025.151218

International Journal of Electronic Governance, 2025 Vol.17 No.3, pp.301 - 319

Received: 25 Dec 2024
Accepted: 19 Apr 2025
Published online: 19 Jan 2026 *

Full-text access for editors Full-text access for subscribers Purchase this article Comment on this article