The evolution of artificial intelligence (AI) has recently entered an exponential acceleration. Every day, new AI applications emerge, and the expectation is that this technology will profoundly change our society in unprecedented ways. AI will create countless opportunities but also brings with it numerous challenges. Urgent ethical and legal issues arise, such as those related to privacy, liability, and discrimination.

Copyright law is one of the legal domains where AI has made a significant impact. Regarding the "input" of AI applications, policymakers and judges struggle with situations where copyrighted images and texts are extensively used as training data to create new works: are these (always) infringements of copyright, and should authors tolerate their hard work being used for free to create material that may eventually render them obsolete? Regarding the "output," the crucial question is whether and under what circumstances AI-generated material is subject to copyright protection and should be. Moreover, who is the author? If this material is unprotected, how do we ensure that people do not falsely claim to have created it themselves to claim copyright? These and similar topics have been the subject of heated debates in national and international legal literature in recent months. The matter continues to stir emotions in jurisprudence and legislation.

Although there are numerous international cooperation agreements, copyright law still varies greatly from country to country today. However, given the cross-border nature of AI applications, international answers are desirable. Therefore, the project aims to combine the extensive legal research expertise of two major knowledge economies – Flanders and Quebec – regarding the enormous challenges for copyright law, and disseminate that knowledge. To achieve the project's goals, mutual research stays and prestigious conferences will be organized on two continents, with the Université de Montréal as an academic partner.