--- title: "Ex-Google CEO Says It’s Fine If AI Companies “Stole All the Content”" description: "According to former Google CEO Eric Schmidt, AI companies should \"steal\" content first, and lawyer up to deal with the \"mess\" later." date: "2024-08-15" modified: "2024-08-15" authors: - name: "Maggie Harrison Dupré" job_title: "Senior Staff Writer" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/mharrison" url: "https://futurism.com/the-byte/ex-google-ceo-ai-companies-steal-content" categories: - "Artificial Intelligence" - "Google" tags: - "ai" - "ai training" - "copyright" - "eric schmidt" - "the digest" --- # Ex-Google CEO Says It’s Fine If AI Companies “Stole All the Content” ![According to former Google CEO Eric Schmidt, AI companies should "steal" content first, and lawyer up to deal with the "mess" later.]() *\Image: Christophe Morin / IP3 via Getty / Futurism\* ## Move Fast and Steal Things Worried your AI startup might be illegally swallowing up boatloads of copyright-protected content? According to former Google CEO Eric Schmidt, you can worry about that later — once you have oodles of cash and a platoon of lawyers, that is. As [caught by *The Verge*,]() during a recent talk at Stanford's School of Engineering, Schmidt displayed what can only be described as Silicon Valley CEO Final Boss Energy as he laid out a theoretical scenario in which the students in the room might use a large language model (LLM) to build a TikTok competitor, in the case that the platform was to be banned. Schmidt acknowledged that his imagined scenario might be riddled with legal and ethical questions — but that, he says, should be something to deal with later. "Here's what I propose each and every one of you do. Say to your LLM the following: 'Make me a copy of TikTok, steal all the users, steal all the music, put my preferences in it, produce this program in the next 30 seconds, release it, and in one hour, if it's not viral, do something different along the same lines," Schmidt told the room. "That's the command." And "what you would do if you're a Silicon Valley entrepreneur," he continued, "is if it took off, then you'd hire a whole bunch of lawyers to go clean the mess up, right?" He then added that "if nobody uses your product, it doesn't matter that you stole all the content" anyway. "Do not quote me," the billionaire continued. (Oops!) ## Lawyers With Mops Schmidt did at one point try to point out that he "was not arguing that you should illegally steal everybody's music," despite advising the students moments earlier to essentially do exactly that. In many ways, the ex-Google CEO's statement perfectly encapsulates [much of the AI industry's]() [overarching]() [attitude toward]() other people's stuff. Companies have been scraping up human-produced content for years now to train their ever-hungry AI models. And while some entities, like *The New York Times*, are [calling copyright foul](), Schmidt apparently sees alleged IP theft as a "mess" for lawyers to clean up later. "Silicon Valley will run these tests and clean up the mess," Schmidt told the Stanford students, [according to a transcript of the event](). "And that's typically how those things are done." The video has since been taken down after plenty of negative press coverage. **More on AI and copyright:** [*Microsoft CEO of AI Says It's Fine to Steal Anything on the Open Web*]() ## Author At Futurism, I've reported extensively on the rise of AI as a cultural and business force shaping the media industry, and more broadly how those dynamics are changing how we all consume and share information and relate to one another. I'm also fascinated by public health policy and ethics, the role of emerging tech in politics and governance — and the powerful people and forces at those intersections — climate change, and the environment. My investigation on Sports Illustrated's use of AI-generated authors with fictional biographies won a 2024 Mirror Award for "Best Story on Media Coverage of Artificial Intelligence in Journalism and the Media" from Syracuse University's SI Newhouse School, I contributed to Niemen Lab's 2025 Predictions for Journalism series, and I've discussed my work for Futurism during appearances on NPR, CNN, the BBC, the CBC, and more. I grew up in rural Pennsylvania and attended the University of Massachusetts Amherst, where I played Division I field hockey for the Minutewomen as a midfielder. Since then, I've lived in New Orleans, Louisiana and Manhattan, New York. I spend my free time running, reading, perusing archival fashion, and searching for the world’s best negroni. I also have a debonair tuxedo cat, Westley, who's named after "The Princess Bride." ### Author social links [Bluesky]()