Senator Hawley Slams AI Giants for Biggest IP Theft in History Urges Congress Action

“These companies downloaded everything—billions of pages, books, and articles. It’s theft on an unimaginable scale,” said Hawley. “If Congress doesn’t step in, American creators will be bankrupted while Big Tech gets richer.”

The hearing included testimony from notable authors, musicians, and legal experts, many of whom expressed alarm at the pace at which AI companies have ingested copyrighted material under questionable legal frameworks. Bestselling author David Baldacci testified that AI-generated content based on his books was “like being digitally looted in broad daylight.”

“None of us gave permission. We didn’t sign contracts. We didn’t license our works,” Baldacci said. “This is not innovation—it’s appropriation.”

Many AI developers defend their practices by citing the legal doctrine of fair use, arguing that using public internet data to train AI models falls under transformative use. However, critics argue that scraping entire libraries—including subscription-only content or paywalled books from pirate sites—is not just unfair, but illegal.

Recent lawsuits support Hawley’s position. In July 2025, a judge ruled that authors suing Anthropic for copyright infringement could proceed as a class action, strengthening legal challenges against AI companies. In another case, OpenAI is facing litigation from The New York Times and individual artists for similar allegations.

Hawley emphasized that the lack of clear legislation is allowing AI companies to operate in a legal grey zone. He called on lawmakers to fast-track new copyright protections for authors and artists in the age of AI, including full disclosure of training data sources and mandatory licensing for copyrighted material.

“Congress must restore balance to this economy,” Hawley said. “We protected songwriters during the digital revolution, and now we must do the same for authors, journalists, and every creative profession.”

This hearing adds pressure to pending proposals like the Generative AI Copyright Disclosure Act, which would require companies to list copyrighted works used to train their models and obtain licensing where applicable.