Trump reportedly fires head of US copyright office after release of AI report

The Trump administration reportedly fired the head of the US copyright office over the weekend – within days of the dismissed official having published a report about how the development of artificial intelligence technology could run afoul of fair use law.

The sacking of Shira Perlmutter as the register of copyrights and director of the copyrights office on Saturday, as reported by the Washington Post and NBC News, came two days after Donald Trump fired the librarian of Congress, who oversees the copyright office.

Perlmutter took over the copyrights office in 2020, and some of her employees suspect her firing may stem from her recent report on how using copyrighted material to train AI tech could overstep laws governing fair use, according to the Post’s reporting.

The New York congressman Joe Morelle, a Democrat, also speculated that Perlmutter’s report may have motivated the Trump administration to fire her, calling her dismissal a “brazen, unprecedented power grab”.

The report from Perlmutter was not highly critical of the use of AI, saying the copyright office believed “government intervention would be premature at this time”.

Related: Trump abruptly fires librarian of Congress in latest purge of government

Since the second Trump administration took office in January, the so-called department of government efficiency (Doge) overseen seen by the billionaire Elon Musk has been tasked with slashing federal spending. And Doge reportedly has been attempting to use AI to make cuts to federal funding.

Additionally, Musk, a staunch Trump ally who owns an AI firm himself, has publicly supported deleting intellectual property laws.

Perlmutter’s firing evidently signals another step by the Trump administration to reshape the federal government by ousting officials who he believes may resist his agenda.

Just days earlier, Trump abruptly fired Carla Hayden as librarian of Congress. Hayden was the first woman and the first Black person to serve in the role. According to the White House, her firing was due to her pursuing diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) programs which Trump has pledged to eliminate.

Hayden had been targeted by rightwing groups who accused her of promoting children’s books that the groups claim are inappropriate. The conservative American Accountability Foundation had urged the Trump administration to fire her, saying she was “woke” and “anti-Trump”.

The Library of Congress in Washington DC is available to the public, holding millions of items, including books and historical documents. It also administers copyright law through its oversight of the copyright office.