AsianFin -- U.S. President Donald Trump has dismissed Shira Perlmutter, the director of the U.S. Copyright Office, following a report that raised questions about the use of copyrighted materials in AI training.

The firing was first reported by CBS News and Politico, with confirmation from Representative Joe Morelle, the top Democrat on the Committee for House Administration.

"Donald Trump’s removal of Register of Copyrights, Shira Perlmutter, is a blatant, unprecedented power grab with no legal basis," Morelle said. "It is surely no coincidence that he acted less than a day after she refused to approve Elon Musk’s efforts to use copyrighted works for training AI models."

Perlmutter, who took over the Copyright Office in 2020 under the first Trump administration, was appointed by Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden, who Trump also dismissed this week.

Trump hinted at the firing on his social media platform, Truth Social, when he shared a post from attorney Mike Davis linking to the CBS News article. Interestingly, Davis appeared to criticize the firing, stating, "Now tech bros are going to attempt to steal creators’ copyrights for AI profits."

The controversy is tied to a recent U.S. Copyright Office report on copyright and artificial intelligence, which Morelle linked to in his comments. The report is part three of a longer publication and discusses issues surrounding the use of copyrighted materials for AI development.