By love-89.com Abba’s Björn Ulvaeus, actress Julianne Moore, and Radiohead’s Thom Yorke are among 10,500 individuals from the creative industries who have signed a statement urging artificial intelligence companies to cease using their work without permission. They warn that this unlicensed use represents a “major, unjust threat” to the livelihoods of artists.
This statement comes as legal disputes emerge between creative professionals and technology firms over the unauthorized use of art to train AI models, such as ChatGPT, which many claim constitutes a breach of copyright. “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 statement emphasizes.
The statement has garnered support from thousands across various fields, including literary figures like Kazuo Ishiguro, Ann Patchett, and Kate Mosse, musicians such as Robert Smith of the Cure and composer Max Richter, as well as actors like Kevin Bacon, Rosario Dawson, and F. Murray Abraham.
Ed Newton-Rex, a British composer and former AI executive who organized the statement, expressed that those relying on creative work for their income are increasingly alarmed by the situation. “There are three key resources that generative AI companies need to build AI models: people, compute, and data. They invest heavily in the first two—often spending a million dollars per engineer and up to a billion dollars per model. Yet they expect to acquire the third—training data—for free,” he noted.
Newton-Rex, who previously served as head of audio at tech firm Stability AI, resigned last year over the company’s stance that acquiring copyrighted content for AI training without a license falls under “fair use,” a term in US copyright law indicating that permission from the copyright owner isn’t necessary.
He added, “When AI companies refer to this as ‘training data,’ they dehumanize it. We’re talking about people’s work— their writing, their art, their music.”
In the United States, prominent authors such as John Grisham, Jodi Picoult, and George R.R. Martin are suing ChatGPT developer OpenAI for alleged copyright infringement. Additionally, visual artists are taking legal action against the companies behind image generators, and major record labels like Sony Music, Universal Music Group, and Warner Music Group are also pursuing lawsuits against AI music creators Suno and Udio.
Newton-Rex raised concerns about an “opt-out” proposal to scrape content that the UK government is considering, describing it as potentially harmful. Reports from the Financial Times indicate that ministers are considering a scheme permitting AI firms to scrape content from creators unless they proactively choose to opt out.
Last month, Google, a significant player in the AI field, called for relaxing restrictions on a practice known as text and data mining (TDM) in the UK, which currently allows copying of copyrighted material for non-commercial purposes like academic research.
Newton-Rex criticized the opt-out proposal as fundamentally flawed since many people are likely unaware of such options. “I have run opt-out schemes for AI companies. Even the most well-organized ones are largely overlooked. You might not hear about it or miss the email,” he explained. “It’s entirely unfair to place the burden of opting out of AI training on the creators whose work is being used. If a government truly believed this was beneficial for creators, it would establish an opt-in system instead.”
He underscored that the extensive support reflected in the statement, including signatures from numerous creative organizations and companies like the American Federation of Musicians, the US actors’ union SAG-AFTRA, the European Writers’ Council, and Universal Music Group, highlights the overwhelming sentiment among creators that an opt-out scheme would be deemed “totally unfair.”