Project Grant 2555560

The National Science Foundation Division of Computer and Network Systems awarded Arizona State University $174,339 under the Computer and Information Science and Engineering program (CFDA 47.070) on October 1, 2026, for collaborative research on jurisdiction-aware copyright protections in large language models.

The project develops technical frameworks to prevent large language models from reproducing protected copyrighted materials while accounting for differing legal requirements across jurisdictions, licenses, and use contexts. The research creates structured representations of jurisdiction, license, and usage context to guide model behavior through efficient adaptation and targeted unlearning; designs legal risk-aware reward models that enable systems to generate useful responses while respecting local copyright constraints; and builds inference-time safeguards that analyze internal model states before generation, monitor outputs during generation, localize risky content spans, and regenerate safer alternatives. The project also develops a feedback-guided data editing process to address detected failures in copyright compliance across the model lifecycle—training, real-time deployment, and post-deployment refinement.

Performance runs from October 1, 2026, through September 30, 2029, at Tempe, Arizona. Arizona State University's Office of Research and Sponsored Projects Administration administers the award as the federal research administration function for the university. Arizona Board of Regents serves as the parent entity.