Pasting other people's work into an AI tool

When you paste something into an AI tool, you're making a promise about it. The tool's terms say so in plain words. Check the promise before you paste.

What the terms ask of you

• You say you have the rights. OpenAI's terms say you "represent and warrant that you have all rights, licenses, and permissions needed to provide Input".¹

• Anthropic asks for the same. Its terms say you "represent and warrant that you have all rights, licenses, and permissions that are necessary" to process what you submit.²

• The responsibility is yours. OpenAI says "You are responsible for Content". Anthropic says third-party content "is the responsibility of the person or entity that provides it".¹²

• Infringement is on the banned list. Anthropic's terms list violating intellectual property rights among the uses it doesn't allow.²

Terms change and vary by region and plan, so open the current version for the tool you use.

What you're pasting

Why the output matters too

• Output can echo input. If you ask a tool to "rewrite" or "continue" a pasted text, the result may stay close to the original. That's a real risk when the original isn't yours.

• Models can repeat what they've seen. Wikipedia says models "may replicate items in their training set".³ That's about training data, not your prompt. It does show why output isn't automatically new.

Habits worth having

• Paste less. A short extract or a summary you wrote yourself usually does the job.

• Ask the owner. An email asking "May I use this in an AI tool to sum it up for our team?" costs little.

• Use your own material first. Notes, drafts and data your business made are the easiest starting point.

• Write down what you pasted. A line in a shared log is enough: source, date, permission.

Whether copying a work into a tool needs permission depends on your country's law and the facts. That's a question for the owner or a lawyer. For output that may be too close to something, read how to spot output that copies something.