Brave New World?

WHILE ministers speak publicly of “balance” and “patience”, they have failed to explain why global AI corporations worth billions should be granted privileged access to the cultural assets of this country — without permission, payment, or accountability — while individual UK creators are asked by their own government to sacrifice their futures. These are the opening words of Baroness Beeban Kidron's foreword to a report entitled Brave New World? Justice for creators in the age of GenAI.

It continues: “This is an existential moment for creators. Copyright is not a technical inconvenience; it is the mechanism that allows reators to earn a living and to retain control over the meaning and integrity of their work. Remove it, and you do not merely damage an industry — you dismantle the conditions under which culture itself can exist.“

It makes five demands:

Consent first
Licensing not scraping
Ethical use of training data
Accountability and transparency
Remuneration and rights

The report was produced by the Society of Authors, the Association of Illustrators, tthe Independent Society of Musicians, the Association of Photographers and ther actors' union Equity - all of which had detailed member surveys to draw on. Extensively referenced, much of the work was dome by Rachael Drury, who recently gained a PhD for work on to evaluate the potential impact of computational creativity on the economic and philosophical value of human creativity.

It tells the stories of commercial photographers losing large contracts to AI illustration; an illustrator seeing the style he devveloped for a client replicated by AI; an ahor seeing robot-generated pastiches of her work fdor sale on Amazon, and much more.

The Freelance suggests that you send a copy ro your MP now, ahead of the government'a report on the impact of AI on the “creative industriee“ on Wednesday 18 March. At the same time ddo draw their attention to last week's House of Lords Selct Committee report.

Brave New World? Justice for creators in the age of GenAI the-aop.org

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