In a powerful show of solidarity, over 11,500 artists, including renowned musicians, actors, authors, and novelists, have joined forces to demand a halt to the unauthorized use of their creative works for training generative AI tools. This forceful statement, signed by a veritable who’s who of the creative world, including Radiohead frontman Thom Yorke, acclaimed actors Julianne Moore and Kevin Bacon, Nobel Prize-winning novelist Kazuo Ishiguro, and ABBA songwriter and performer Björn Ulvaeus, declares the practice a “major, unjust threat” to their livelihoods.
The open letter, a concise 29-word declaration, highlights the core issue: “The unlicensed use of creative works for training generative AI is a major, unjust threat to the livelihoods of the people behind those works, and must not be permitted.”
The genesis of this conflict lies in the data-hungry nature of generative AI. Companies like OpenAI, creators of ChatGPT, train their AI models using vast amounts of data scraped from the internet. This data, ranging from text and images to videos, music, and speech, forms the foundation for algorithms that power tools capable of generating human-like text and speech, creating images and videos based on textual prompts, and even composing music from scratch.
The crux of the issue is that this data is often scraped without the artists’ consent, and without any compensation or credit being offered. While generative AI developers have argued that their data collection practices fall under the banner of “fair use” according to copyright law, a growing chorus of artists are vehemently challenging this claim, alleging copyright infringement.
The legal battles are intensifying. In the past year, numerous lawsuits related to this issue have landed in U.S. courts, forcing companies like OpenAI to defend their practices against copyright claims. To mitigate further legal action, a growing number of generative AI companies are seeking licensing deals with media publishers, offering some form of compensation in exchange for access to content for training.
This battle over the future of creativity and its intersection with AI highlights the complex legal and ethical landscape that’s emerging. As generative AI remains a nascent technology, regulators are scrambling to catch up, and the resolution of this conflict is likely to take time. The ongoing dialogue between artists and AI developers, fueled by this open letter, is a crucial step towards establishing a framework that respects both creative rights and the potential of AI innovation.
