New Report Highlights How Fair Use Is Fueling America’s AI Economy

Key takeaways:

• Industries that rely on fair use generate nearly one-fifth of U.S. GDP and support more than 22 million American jobs.
• AI-related sectors benefiting from fair use are growing significantly faster than the broader economy.
• Courts’ approach to AI training follows decades of established precedent on U.S. copyright law and the doctrine of fair use.

Fair use is a major economic force in the United States — and its impact is growing. A new report from the Computer & Communications Industry Association (CCIA) finds that industries relying on fair use generated $10.2 trillion in revenue in 2023 and contributed $4.9 trillion to the U.S. economy, accounting for nearly 18 percent of U.S. GDP.

These figures place fair use at the center of the modern U.S. economy and help explain why it has remained essential to America’s leadership in artificial intelligence.

Why fair use matters for AI innovation

The connection between fair use and artificial intelligence is especially striking. The report finds that AI-linked fair use industries, which include software developers, web hosting providers, and educational institutions, among others — are growing far faster than fair use industries overall — and far faster than the broader economy.

Between 2017 and 2023, revenues in AI-related fair use sectors rose by nearly 80 percent, while their contribution to the U.S. economy increased by almost 90 percent. These gains reflect the reality that training and deploying AI systems depend on copyright limitations and exceptions, including fair use. Without it, many of the processes that make AI possible, from data analysis to model training, would be significantly harder, slower, or more expensive.

Courts are following the law — and history

Critics sometimes argue that courts are creating new rules to accommodate AI. However, the CCIA report places AI training squarely within a long line of technologies that courts have already recognized as fair use, including software interoperability and text and data mining.

Recent court decisions involving AI training don’t represent a legal departure. They reflect the consistent application of decades of fair use jurisprudence designed to ensure copyright law supports innovation rather than stifles it.

Supporting high-quality jobs and productivity

Fair use supports some of the most productive, high-wage jobs in the economy. Industries benefiting from fair use and related limitations and exceptions employed 22 million workers in 2023, with 2.5 million jobs added since 2017. Today, roughly one in seven U.S. workers is employed in an industry that benefits from these protections.

Productivity and payroll per employee are significantly higher in fair use industries than economy-wide averages, with AI-related sectors showing especially strong output per worker. That combination of high productivity, strong wages, and rapid growth highlights why weakening fair use would have consequences far beyond any single industry.

The bottom line

Fair use is a proven economic engine that powers AI innovation, supports millions of jobs, and helps keep the United States competitive in a rapidly evolving global economy.