Matthew Sag


Matthew Sag is an Australian-American academic and Jonas Robitscher Professor of Law in Artificial Intelligence, machine learning, and data science at Emory University School of Law. Sag is an expert in copyright law and intellectual property. He is a U.S. authority on the fair use doctrine in copyright law and its implications for researchers in the field of text data mining, machine learning and artificial intelligence.
Sag has published numerous works in journals such as Nature, and the law reviews of University of California Berkeley, Georgetown, Northwestern, Notre Dame, Vanderbilt, Iowa and William & Mary, among others. His research has been widely cited in academic works, court submissions, judicial opinions and government reports.
In July 2023, Sag testified before the U.S. Senate Committee on the Judiciary Subcommittee on Intellectual Property.

Education

Sag graduated from the Australian National University in 1997 with a Bachelor of Arts and a Bachelors of Laws.

Professional career

Sag was an associate to the honorable Justice Paul Finn of the Federal Court of Australia from 1997 – 1998.
Sag practiced law in Australia, the United Kingdom, and the United States from 1998 to 2004. He began has academic career as a Visiting Assistant Professor at Northwestern University School of Law in 2004.
Sag joined the faculty at DePaul University in 2006. He joined the faculty at Loyola University Chicago School of Law in 2011. He joined the faculty at Emory University School of Law in 2022. Sag is currently the Jonas Robitscher Professor of Law in Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, and Data Science at Emory University School of Law. Sag has served as a visiting professor at Melbourne University Law School, University of Virginia School of Law, and Northwestern University School of Law.
Sag is elected to the American Law Institute.
In July 2023, Sag testified before the U.S. Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Border Security and Immigration|Senate Judiciary Subcommittee] on Intellectual Property in relation to artificial intelligence and copyright. The hearing focused on ensuring the United States remain competitive in the AI industry and examined the legality of using copyrighted material to train large language models without the consent of the artist. Sag stated that copyright does not, and should not, recognize computer systems as authors and discussed why training generative AI on copyrighted use is generally fair use.

Personal life

Sag is dyslexic, a keen marathon runner, and has an Erdős number of 5.

Selected publications