Google followed Microsoft by offering protection to customers of its Workspace and Google Cloud which use its generative AI from copyright infringement claims.

In a blog, Google Cloud stated it will provide protection from copyright infringement claims covering finished products or the use of its AI training data.

The search giant noted it is taking a two-pronged approach to IP indemnity for generative AI.

Training data indemnity covers any allegations that Google’s use of the information to create any of its models by a generative AI service infringes on a third party’s IP, while its cover for output involves content created following “prompts or other inputs” customers provide to the company’s services. 

“With this second layer of protection, our indemnity obligations now also apply to allegations that generated output infringes a third party’s IP rights,” stated blog authors Neal Suggs, VP of legal, and Phil Venables VP, TI Security and CISO for Google Cloud.

They noted the measures applied to its Vertex AI development platform and Duet AI system used in Google Cloud and Workspace.

Google, Microsoft, Facebook, AWS and OpenAI, among others, are racing to implement generative AI across a range of services and applications, but face lawsuits from authors and copyright owners who contend their work is being used to train large language models without their permission.

In a separate blog, Google VP of trust and safety Laurie Richardson explained the company “will assume responsibility for the potential legal risks involved” if a customer is “challenged on copyright grounds”.