Oct 23, 2024 17:00:00

SAG-AFTRA, the actors' union, and the world's largest publishers sign an open letter saying creative works should not be used to train AI without permission

The Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA),

which opposes AI training without consent, and Penguin Random House, the world's largest publisher, which has explicitly prohibited the use of its books for AI training, have joined the list of signatories of the open letter ' Statement on AI Training, ' which has been signed by 13,500 celebrities.

More than 11,000 creatives condemn unauthorized use of content for AI development
https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/actors-artists-authors-open-letter-ai-copyright-rcna176681

Thom Yorke and Julianne Moore join thousands of creatives in AI warning | Artificial intelligence (AI) | The Guardian
https://www.theguardian.com/film/2024/oct/22/thom-yorke-and-julianne-moore-join-thousands-of-creatives-in-ai-warning

The statement on AI training states that 'the unauthorized use of creative works to train generative AI poses a serious and unjustified threat to the livelihoods of the people behind those works and should not be allowed,' and has already been signed by more than 13,500 individuals and organizations, including musician Thom Yorke, actor Kevin Bacon, the American Council of Independent Music, and the Recording Industry Association of America.

'People whose livelihoods depend on creative work are deeply concerned that their work is being used, without permission, to train AI,' said British composer Ed Newton-Rex, who organized the letter.

Rex was originally the former head of audio at technology company Stability AI, but resigned in 2023 after questioning the company's belief that 'unlicensed use of copyrighted content for AI training constitutes fair use.'

Stability AI is a company that provides the image generation AI 'Stable Diffusion'. Stable Diffusion uses the AI dataset 'LAION-5B' for learning, but it has been pointed out that LAION-5B contains image links posted to the image posting community 'DeviantArt', and Stability AI has been sued for using human copyrighted work for learning without permission.

Class action lawsuit filed against image generation AI 'Stable Diffusion' and 'Midjourney' - GIGAZINE

Creators often claim that their work is used by AI without permission as 'copyright infringement,' while AI companies counter that it is 'fair use.' As an example, Suno, a music generation AI development company sued by the Recording Industry Association of America, claims that 'Major record companies claim that neural networks are simply parrots that repeat copy and paste, but music generation AI learns the grammar of music, such as musical styles, patterns, and forms, and invents new music based on that. Using existing sound recordings as data, analyzing them to identify patterns in various musical styles, and enabling people to create new works is a typical fair use, and the claims of the RIAA and major record companies are fundamentally inconsistent with the law and its underlying values.'

Some plaintiffs are suing the companies for 'unjust enrichment' rather than copyright infringement, arguing that 'scraping data from the internet to train AI is unfair, immoral, unethical, oppressive, disrespectful, or harmful to consumers.'

YouTuber sues NVIDIA and OpenAI for using his videos to train generative AI models, alleging 'unjust enrichment' rather than copyright infringement - GIGAZINE

While calling for protection for creators, Rex also questions the 'opt-out proposal' protection measure being considered by the UK government. This proposal would allow AI companies to collect content unless creators explicitly opt out. Based on his experience running an opt-out system at an AI company, Rex said, 'No matter what opt-out measures are in place, creators will miss out on the opportunity. It's completely unfair to put the burden of opting out on creators. If the government really thought this was a good thing for creators, they would create an opt-in system.'

In the United States, where Rex lives, there is no comprehensive law regulating the development of AI, and regulations are implemented at the state level. 'As legal battles and legislation over unauthorized AI training progress, there is a growing trend for important regulations for creators around the world,' Rex said.