Thousands of members of the creative industries, among them numerous well-known authors, musicians and actors, have signalled their opposition to the unauthorised use of creative works to train AI models.

The artists have signed the ‘Statement on AI Training’ which simply states that “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 is the latest in a series of calls from those in the creative industries for action to be taken to ensure that, unless authorised to do so, AI developers do not include copyright-protected works within the training data that is used to build their models. It also comes as patience appears to be wearing thin in some circles for a resolution to be reached between the creative industries and AI developers over how to balance their respective interests of, on the one hand, creators being properly remunerated for the exploitation of their copyright-protected works and, on the other, AI developers being able to train their models on sufficiently large datasets.

After the previous Government both abandoned plans for the extension of the text and data mining exception in the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 to include non-commercial uses, as well as a voluntary code of practice between the two sectors, no alternative resolution has yet been proposed.

We have previously noted (see here) that there was a signal from a government minister earlier this month that a possible solution – perhaps including new legislation – would be announced before the end of the year. Since then, it has been reported that the Government is to consult on a scheme that would allow AI companies to use copyright-protected works for training purposes unless the owner opted out (which would mirror, in essence, the position in the EU under the DSM Copyright Directive). Such a consultation is apparently due as soon as in the next few weeks, although there has been no confirmation from the Government at this time. Therefore, until then, the wait goes on to see if a resolution to this problem can finally be found.

To read the Statement on AI Training, click here.