As another user said, the process is mechanical, so I'm not sure it can be thought as a derivative work.
I guess what I want to say is that in this matter of AI, you can't have your cake and eat it. If you want to have copyright over your weights, be prepared to also pay for the rights of the content your weights were based on.
And I think nobody in the AI world want to walk through that avenue.
The U.S. Copyright Office says that copyright protection doesn't cover ideas, procedures, processes, systems, methods of operation, concepts, or discoveries. No matter how they're described, explained, illustrated, or embodied. You can find this info in the Copyright Act, under 17 U.S.C. § 102(b). Here's the source: https://www.copyright.gov/title17/92chap1.html#102.
I guess what I want to say is that in this matter of AI, you can't have your cake and eat it. If you want to have copyright over your weights, be prepared to also pay for the rights of the content your weights were based on.
And I think nobody in the AI world want to walk through that avenue.