UK Creatives Demand AI Transparency in Letter to Tech Giants Including Microsoft and Google

11 August 2024 | Source
he UK-based Creators’ Rights Alliance has sent an open letter to major tech companies, including Microsoft, Google, Apple, and OpenAI, demanding transparency regarding the copyrighted works used to train their AI systems. Representing over 500,000 creators, the alliance insists that no works be used without explicit permission and seeks appropriate remuneration for past and future uses.

The Creators’ Rights Alliance (CRA), a UK-based coalition representing over 500,000 creators, has issued an open letter to several leading technology companies, including Microsoft, Google, Apple, OpenAI, and Meta. The letter demands greater transparency regarding the copyrighted works used in the development and operation of artificial intelligence (AI) systems, especially generative AI models.

The CRA, which includes organizations like Directors UK, the Equity union, and the Writers’ Guild of Great Britain, asserts that none of its members have authorized the use of their works for training or developing AI models without explicit consent. The letter emphasizes that UK law does not permit the copying of protected works for such purposes without the creator’s or rightsholder’s explicit approval.

The coalition’s letter outlines seven key demands aimed at AI developers, focusing on transparency, consent, and fair compensation. Among these demands are the requirements for tech companies to disclose the specific works used to train their AI models, obtain prior authorization for any future use of creative works, and offer appropriate remuneration for both past and future uses.

The letter also references recent reports from the UK’s House of Lords Communications and Digital Committee and the House of Commons Innovation, Science, and Technology Committee, both of which have highlighted the need for improved AI governance. These reports have underscored the importance of ensuring that copyright-protected works are not used without permission or compensation.

The CRA’s concerns mirror those raised in the US during last year’s writers’ and actors’ strikes, where the use of generative AI was a contentious issue. The Writers Guild of America (WGA) and the Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA) successfully negotiated regulations to protect creators' rights in the face of advancing AI technologies. However, these measures are currently applicable only to US-based creatives and companies.

In response to these challenges, UK union Equity launched an AI toolkit last year to help performers safeguard their rights against what it described as an “unregulated surge” in AI technology.

The CRA's letter concludes by urging AI developers to engage in good faith negotiations with rightsholders and creators, emphasizing the need for commercial agreements that respect creators' rights and contributions. The coalition stresses that where rightsholders are not the creators themselves, tech companies should ensure that creators have given specific consent for the use of their work.

This call for action highlights the growing tension between the creative industries and AI developers, as creators seek to protect their work and secure fair treatment in an increasingly AI-driven landscape.

Creators’ Rights Alliance letter

Dear Chief Executive,

Protected Works

Wednesday 7th August 2024

We are writing to you on behalf of our 500,000-plus creator members in relation to the use of their work to develop generative AI models. This letter reaffirms that members of the Creators’ Rights Alliance and the creators they represent do not authorise or otherwise grant permission for the use of any of their works protected by copyright and/or related rights (including performers rights) in relation to, without limitation, the training, development, or operation of AI models, including large language models, diffusion models, generative or other any other AI products, unless the creators have specifically agreed licensing arrangements.

The Creators’ Rights Alliance (CRA) is a coalition that exists to promote, protect and further the interests of creators through policy, advocacy, and campaigning work. We speak on behalf of major creator-led groups, trade associations, and unions, between them representing over 500,000 individual members working as professional creators in the UK’s creative industries – from authors, artists, photographers and illustrators to translators, performers, musicians, and journalists.

We know that artificial intelligence, including generative AI programs can be useful tools. However, to safeguard human creativity, truthful content and the rights of authors, creators, and performers, it is vital that AI models are developed and used in a legal, sustainable, and ethical manner.

The CRA notes with concern the use of vast amounts of work protected by copyright and related rights without the authorisation of the rightsholder(s) and creator(s) in the development (including so-called training), and operation of AI models. This has caused and continues to cause great harm to the significant creative, human, and financial investment made by authors, performers, and visual creators.

UK law does not allow copying for such purposes without the explicit consent of the creator or their licensee/appointed representatives. Accordingly, the large-scale copying (including, but not limited to, extraction and transformation) that has been carried out to date amounts to copyright infringement for which rightsholders and creators should be compensated, along with the option of having their works, and derivations of those works, removed and, where permission is granted for them not to be removed, full credit for all uses past and present to be given.

We would draw your attention to the report from the House of Lords Communications and Digital Committee Inquiry into Large Language Models (LLMs), to which Society of Authors provided evidence, which supported the fact that tech firms should not use copyright-protected works without permission or compensation, that there should be support for licensing, and that there should be transparency for rightsholders.

The House of Commons Innovation, Science and Technology Committee also published a Legacy Report on 29th May 2024, the report outlines twelve clear challenges for AI Governance.

Members of the Creators’ Rights Alliance and the creators they represent do not authorise or otherwise grant permission for the use of any of their works protected by copyright and related rights (including performers rights) in relation to, without limitation, the training, development, or operation of AI models, including large language models, diffusion models, generative or other any other AI products, unless they have specifically agreed licensing arrangements.

For the avoidance of doubt, our members do not accept that any AI platform had or has the right to use their work without an express license, or their personal data without express consent.

We call on developers of all, but especially generative, AI systems:

  1. To provide full transparency about the works which have been used to develop their model;
  2. To make detailed requests for any works they seek to use in future;
  3. To obtain authorisation (in advance) from the relevant creator and rightsholder, and where a rightsholder is licensing a catalogue of works to seek assurances that the creators of those works have specifically consented to the licensing arrangement
  4. To offer appropriate remuneration for all uses - past and future;
  5. To give appropriate attribution to all creators concerned with the work, in all cases;
  6. To engage in good faith licensing negotiations to redress past bad practice, to remove from their systems any copyright protected works (including but not limited to literature, images, music, and performances) which has been used without authorisation (datasets and programs) and to show evidence of such removal;
  7. To respect the fact that there may be occasions where creators and/or their representatives may, on ethical and/or economic grounds, choose to withhold their consent for the use of their work.

We urge developers to agree terms on a commercial basis with respective rightsholders and where those rightsholders are not the creators themselves, to satisfy themselves that creators have given specific consent. Licensing opportunities already exist, and additional models are being developed to facilitate yet more good work. The CRA and its members would welcome your engagement in progressing these models to ensure that all our creative work makes for a prosperous and vibrant future for everyone.

Signed,

Association of Authors’ Agents

Association of British Science Writers

Association of Illustrators

Association of Photographers

Authors’ Licensing and Collecting Society

British Association of Picture Libraries and Agencies

British Equity Collection Society

Design and Artists Copyright Society

Directors UK

Equity

Featured Artists Coalition

Independent Society of Musicians

Ivors Academy

Music Managers Forum

Musicians’ Union

National Union of Journalists

Picture Industry Collecting Society for Effective Licensing

The Royal Photographic Society

The Society of Authors

Society of Artists Agents

Writers’ Guild of Great Britain

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