Recently, Tencent's AI assistant, "Tencent Yuanbao," has drawn significant attention and discussion due to modifications in its user agreement.
According to Taishan Finance, the controversy stems from Article 5 of the Tencent Yuanbao User Agreement concerning intellectual property rights, particularly clause 5.4. This clause states that content uploaded to the platform by users (including prompts) and content generated using the service grants Tencent and its affiliates an irrevocable, perpetual, royalty-free, and worldwide license to store, use, copy, edit, and publish the content, for purposes including model optimization, academic research, and marketing.
Upon its release, this clause immediately sparked heated online discussions. Some argue that if creators use Tencent Yuanbao to refine or modify text, their copyright may be at risk, fearing that Tencent will "appropriate" their creative work. Several users expressed concerns, questioning whether the terms of the agreement could harm creators' rights.
In response to the controversy, a relevant Tencent official clarified: "Using Tencent Yuanbao does not alter the ownership of content copyright. The input and output content legally belongs to its rightful owner." They further explained that the user agreement clearly states that the ownership of uploaded and generated content belongs to the user or the rightful intellectual property owner, and that using the service itself does not affect copyright ownership. This statement aims to alleviate public concerns and emphasize that Tencent does not intend to infringe on user copyrights through its AI service.
This incident not only reflects the public's sensitivity to copyright issues concerning AI tools but also highlights the challenge for companies in balancing technological development with user rights when formulating relevant agreements.
