Thousands of Artists Unite Against Unlicensed AI Training in Open Letter

Generative AI is disrupting creative communities, here's how they are fighting back

Tens of thousands of creatives have signed an open letter calling for change. Generative artificial intelligence companies capable of generating creative content are also said to be disrupting the livelihoods of creatives around the world, according to a group of creatives speaking out publicly about the 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, a " statement signed by 11,500 actors, musicians, authors, photographers, and composers from across the world, read. Julianne Moore, Kevin Bacon, Thom Yorke and Abba's Björn Ulvaeus, are among the tens of thousands of creatives who have signed this open letter calling for these companies to stop indiscriminately training on content they say should be licensed. "This is a major issue for many of the artists, musicians, actors, authors, and other creators whose work is being exploited by AI companies," said Ed Newton-Rex, a former AI executive who released the statement. As a former head of audio at Stability AI, Newton-Rex is well acquainted with the internal data training practices of generative AI companies. He resigned over the company's belief that training their AI models on copyrighted content without licensing it constitutes "fair use." Generative AI models have generally scrapped as much content as they could from the internet, downloaded it and trained their model to be able to create new work that is in the style of the work it trained on, Newton-Rex told ABC News. "None of this revenue is coming back to the original artists," explained Overlai founder Luke Neumann in a blog post about his new mobile app which aims to protect photography in the age of AI. Neumann, who also signed the letter, launched the free app Overlai with world-renowned photographers Paul Nicklen and Cristina Mittermeier, when they noticed text-to-image generators could easily replicate the unique styles of both photographers. And, Neumann stresses the amount of work that goes into conservationist photography - the cost of travel and spending weeks, sometimes months in a location documenting a delicate ecosystem. "I think AI companies really need to think long and hard about like how long they're going to need organic data and if they want to be messing with these fragile business models of the people out there capturing this stuff," Neumann to ABC News. Several lawsuits from creatives ranging from writers to musicians to comedians have piled up against some of the biggest generative AI companies for copyright infringement.

More than 11,000 creatives condemn unauthorized use of content for AI development

At least 11,500 creative professionals -- including Oscar-winning actress Julianne Moore, author James Patterson and Radiohead's musician Thom Yorke -- have signed an open letter calling for the prohibition of using human art to train artificial intelligence without permission. "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 one-line statement, which isn't addressed to anyone in particular, reads. The lack of federal regulation around generative AI amid its rapid proliferation has contributed to a growing maelstrom of confusion and criticism around what datasets AI companies are using to train their models. Artists and companies in recent years have called out these tech giants and startups for allegedly scraping their work without their knowledge or consent. Ed Newton-Rex, a composer and former executive at Stability AI, said this movement for regulation comes at a critical time for creatives worldwide as legal battles and legislation over unlicensed AI training continue to unfold. "Lots of generative AI companies train on creators' work without a license to do so," said Newton-Rex, who founded Fairly Trained, a nonprofit that certifies generative AI companies that use consensual training data. "This is a major issue for many of the artists, musicians, actors, authors and other creators whose work is being exploited by AI companies." The letter has racked up hundreds more signatories in the hours since it went public on Tuesday. Actress Fran Drescher, president of SAG-AFTRA, the labor union that represents thousands of Hollywood actors, was among the signatories. Dozens of organizations, including major publishing houses and music labels, signed the letter as well. The potential for generative AI to replace human labor remains a pressing concern for actors and video game performers, as well as others in the industry. Publishers like The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal have sued AI companies such as OpenAI and Perplexity AI for copyright infringement. Others, like Condé Nast and Hearst, have instead struck content deals with OpenAI -- allowing its products, including ChatGPT and SearchGPT, to display content from the companies' media outlets. The world's biggest record labels also teamed up in June to take two prominent AI music-making companies to court, alleging that they trained their models on decades' worth of copyrighted sound recordings without consent. The proliferation of accessible AI tools capable of generating realistic media -- including full songs, music videos and advertisements -- has triggered a slew of legal and ethical questions for artists. Many artists have expressed concern over how generative AI technologies could undermine human work and compensation, including by replicating celebrities' likenesses without their consent. Earlier this year, Drake removed a diss track from the internet after Tupac Shakur's estate threatened to sue him for allegedly using the late rapper's AI-generated voice in the song. AI-generated advertisements have also used the likenesses of public figures such as Taylor Swift, MrBeast, Scarlett Johansson and Morgan Freeman to promote various products. For now, no comprehensive legislation exists in the United States to regulate the development of AI, but several states have begun introducing bills to propose specific regulations, particularly around deepfakes. Last month, California passed into law two bills aimed at protecting actors and other performers from unauthorized use of their digital likenesses.

Thom Yorke among thousands of artists to issue AI protest | Digital Trends

Leading actors, authors, musicians, and novelists are among 11,500 artists to have put their name to a statement calling for a halt to the unlicensed use of creative works to train generative AI tools like OpenAI's ChatGPT, describing it as a "threat" to the livelihoods of creators. The open letter, comprising just 29 words, says: "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." Recommended Videos Those who signed it include Radiohead frontman Thom Yorke, award-winning actors Julianne Moore and Kevin Bacon, Nobel Prize-winning novelist Kazuo Ishiguro, and ABBA songwriter and performer Björn Ulvaeus. OpenAI and other tech firms building generative-AI products use data scraped from the internet to train their AI models. Depending on the nature of the generative-AI tool being trained, the data can include text, images, videos, music, and speech. The data helps to build and refine algorithms for tools that let users have a human-like conversation in text or spoken form, or build images and/or videos from text prompts. It can also power speech tools and even create music from scratch, all from a few basic instructions entered by the user. The main issue is that the data has often been scraped without consent from the artists, and without the tech firms offering any compensation or credit. Makers of the generative-AI tools have claimed that its data collection methods fall under the protection of "fair use" according to copyright law, but an increasing number of artists have been speaking out against the practice, claiming copyright infringement. In the last year or so, a number of lawsuits relating to the issue have landed in U.S. courts, forcing firms like OpenAI to defend themselves over copyright claims. In a bid to offset further legal action, an increasing number of firms engaged in creating generative-AI tools have begun seeking licensing deals with media publishers that will give the tech firms access to content for training in exchange for some form of compensation package. With generative AI still a relatively new form of technology, regulators are having to play catch-up, and so it's likely to take some time before the issue is fully resolved.

Famous creatives flock to sign open letter protesting 'unethical' AI

An open letter warning of the increasing threat of AI to creative careers has been signed by over 11,500 professionals including notable actors, authors and musicians. Criticising the "unlicensed use of creative work" for training AI models, the letter is irrevocable proof that the rise in AI technology is an ever-pressing issue that concerns creatives of all statures. While AI has been used for years, the unpermitted use of copyrighted materials to train learning-based models has been a highly contentious topic in the wake of the recent SAG-AFTRA strikes. With legal and ethical concerns mounting in the wake of AI's rise, the open letter is an important step in raising awareness of the issue, hopefully leading to stricter regulation and increased transparency. Consisting of one short yet powerful statement, the letter reads: "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." Published by Fairly Trained - an organisation advocating for ethical data training of AI models -the bold statement has already garnered mass support from creatives across the industry. Among the signatures are musicians AURORA, Robert Smith and Thom Yorke, alongside actors Kevin Bacon, Kate McKinnon and Julianne Moore. Notable authors include Ann Patchett, Kazuo Ishiguro and James Patterson while industry professionals such as the CEO of Hatchette Book Group join the ranks. Last week we saw major AI updates from Adobe MAX, Meta's Movie Gen launch and Tesla's controversial We, Robot event, in one of the biggest weeks for AI in recent times. While this proves that AI innovation is not set to cease anytime soon, it's important that ethical practice is at the forefront of development and that we continue to spotlight the voices of creatives advocating for fair training. For more insight into how creatives feel about AI, check out what industry pros think about the future of AI art.

More than 10,500 artists sign open letter protesting unlicensed AI training

Some of the biggest names in Hollywood, literature and music have issued a warning to the artificial intelligence industry. reports that more than 10,500 artists have signed an objecting to AI developers' "unlicensed use" of artists' work to train their models. "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 one sentence letter reads. The letter has support from some huge names across the film, television, music and publishing industries. Some of the more famous signatures include actors Julianne Moore, Rosario Dawson, Kevin Bacon and F. Murray Abraham, as well as former Saturday Night Live star Kate McKinnon, author James Patterson and Radiohead frontman Thom Yorke. The unauthorized use of their work to train AI models has been an area of major concern among creatives. The union and recently held industry-wide strikes demanding better protections for their work and livelihood against the use of AI in studio projects. There are also several lawsuits currently in courts accusing some AI developers of using copyrighted content without permission or proper compensation.On Monday, The Wall Street Journal and The New York Post for violating their copyright protections. like Universal, Warner and Sony sued the makers of the Suno and Uido AI music makers back in June for violating its copyright protections on a "massive scale."

Thom Yorke and Julianne Moore join thousands of creatives in AI warning

Statement comes as tech firms try to use creative professionals' work to train AI models Abba's Björn Ulvaeus, the actor Julianne Moore, the Radiohead singer Thom Yorke are among 10,500 signatories of a statement from the creative industries warning artificial intelligence companies that unlicensed use of their work is a "major, unjust threat" to artists' livelihoods. The statement comes amid legal battles between creative professionals and tech firms over the use of their work to train AI models such as ChatGPT and claims that using their intellectual property without permission is 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," reads the statement. Thousands of creative professionals from the worlds of literature, music, film, theatre and television have given their backing to the statement, with authors including Kazuo Ishiguro, Ann Patchett, and Kate Mosse, musicians including the Cure's Robert Smith as well as the composer Max Richter and actors including Kevin Bacon, Rosario Dawson and F Murray Abraham. The organiser of the letter, the British composer and former AI executive Ed Newton-Rex, said people who make a living from creative work are "very worried" about the situation. "There are three key resources that generative AI companies need to build AI models: people, compute, and data. They spend vast sums on the first two - sometimes a million dollars per engineer, and up to a billion dollars per model. But they expect to take the third - training data - for free," he said. Newton-Rex is a former head of audio at tech firm Stability AI but resigned last year over the firm's belief that taking copyrighted content to train AI models without a licence constitutes "fair use", a term under US copyright law meaning permission from the copyright owner is not needed. Newton-Rex added: "When AI companies call this 'training data', they dehumanise it. What we're talking about is people's work - their writing, their art, their music." In the US John Grisham, Jodi Picoult and George RR Martin are among a group of authors suing ChatGPT developer OpenAI for alleged breach of copyright, while artists are also suing tech firms behind image generators and major record labels including Sony Music, Universal Music Group and Warner Records are suing AI music creators Suno and Udio. Newton-Rex also warned that an "opt-out" proposal for scraping content being considered by the UK government would be highly damaging. This month the Financial Times reported that ministers would consult on a scheme that would allow AI firms to scrape content from artists and publishers unless they "opt out" of the process. Last month Google, a major player in AI, called for the relaxation of restrictions on a practice in the UK known as text and data mining (TDM), where copying of copyrighted work is allowed for non-commercial purposes such as academic research. Newton-Rex said the opt-out option was flawed because most people are unaware of such schemes. "I have run opt-out schemes for AI companies," said Newton-Rex. "Even the most well-run opt-out schemes get missed by most people who have the chance to opt out. You never hear about it, you miss the email. It's totally unfair to put the burden of opting out of AI training on the creator whose work is being trained on. If a government really thought this was a good thing for creators then it would create an opt-in scheme." Newton-Rex said the number of signatories to the statement, and the breadth of creative talent they represent, made clear that an opt-out scheme would be considered "totally unfair" by creators. The statement is also signed by creative industry organisations and companies including the American Federation of Musicians, the US actors' union SAG-AFTRA, the European Writers' Council and Universal Music Group.

More than 10,500 actors, musicians, authors protest tech's AI data grab

Open letter from Thom Yorke, Julianne Moore and others calls unlicensed data scraping a threat to their livelihood. More than 10,500 creative professionals, including Thom Yorke from Radiohead, actress Julianne Moore, and Nobel Prize-winning novelist Kazuo Ishiguro, have signed an open letter condemning "unlicensed use of creative works" to develop artificial intelligence systems such as OpenAI's ChatGPT. Use of creative work without a license for AI development is "a major, unjust threat to the livelihoods of the people behind those works, and must not be permitted," the brief, 29-word letter says. OpenAI and other tech companies need text, images, video and other material to train the algorithms that power chatbots and other AI systems. That data has often been scraped from the internet without consent, compensation or credit. Tech companies have argued this practice is protected as "fair use" under copyright law, but content owners and publishers have increasingly fought back. They have asserted in lawsuits and pleas to regulators that AI developers using their work have illegally infringed on their copyright protections. "This question of creators' rights is incredibly pressing," said Ed Newton-Rex, a former AI executive and music composer who helped organize the letter released Tuesday and is now CEO of nonprofit Fairly Trained, which certifies tech companies for data practices that support creators' rights. "Right now, it's important to send a message." Several high-profile lawsuits against AI companies over data use are working through the courts. Regulators in the United States and Britain are debating whether copyright exemptions should be created for artificial intelligence projects, including the possibility of allowing AI companies to scrape data unless artists and publishers opt out. "There's a potential outcome where it's essentially too late to do anything about it," said Newton-Rex, who resigned from his role at high-profile start-up Stability AI last year because he disagreed with its position that training algorithms on copyrighted work constituted fair use. The letter released Tuesday was signed by actors including Kevin Bacon and Melissa Joan Hart; comedians Kate McKinnon and Rosie O'Donnell; authors including Ann Patchett and Emily St. John Mandel; songwriter Billy Bragg and ABBA's Björn Ulvaeus; and a slew of Oscar-winning composers who scored movies like "Avatar" and "The Life of Pi." Industry figures including the head of trade organization Songwriters of North America and the CEO of Hachette Book Group also signed the letter. The letter comes after industry-specific protests against unauthorized use of creative work for AI systems. Those have included musical artists such as Billie Eilish and Nicki Minaj, Hollywood documentarians, and a group of more than 15,000 authors including Margaret Atwood and Jonathan Franzen. At the same time, U.S. courts are allowing claims in a number of lawsuits against AI companies over data use to proceed. In July, a U.S. District Judge in California allowed a claim of copyright infringement to move forward in a lawsuit filed against OpenAI by writers including comedian Sarah Silverman. An allegation of unfair business practices in the suit was dismissed. In August a different U.S. District Judge in the state allowed key parts of a lawsuit against image generation start-ups Stability AI and Midjourney to advance. Experts warn it will be challenging for plaintiffs to win such cases, because they may have to prove that the outputs from AI systems are imitating specific works, not just using them as one input among many that influences the system's behavior. Some content publishers have taken a different tack, signing agreements with AI developers to provide access to their data in return for payment or other benefits.

Hollywood celebrities among thousands warning against AI

In a statement, 13,500 creatives describe the use of their work to train AI without consent is a 'major, unjust threat' to their profession. More than 13,000 creatives from around the world, including famous actors, singers and authors have signed a statement warning artificial intelligence (AI) companies that the unlicensed use of their work to train generative AI models is a "major, unjust threat" to their livelihoods. The list of signatories include Sir Kazuo Ishiguro, songwriter Björn Ulvaeus, actors Kevin Bacon, Julianne Moore and Kate McKinnon and musician Aurora among thousands others. In full, the short statement reads: "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." This statement is one of several attempts by creatives to stop companies from using their creative output as training fodder without consent. The statement was organised by British composer and Fairly Trained founder and CEO Ed Newton-Rex, who told The Guardian that AI companies expect to take training data from creatives for free. "There are three key resources that generative AI companies need to build AI models: people, compute and data. They spend vast sums on the first two - sometimes a million dollars per engineer, and up to a billion dollars per model. But they expect to take the third - training data - for free," Rex said. "When AI companies call this 'training data', they dehumanise it. What we're talking about is people's work - their writing, their art, their music." Until November last year, Newton-Rex was VP of audio at Stability AI, the start-up behind the AI-powered text-to-image generator Stable Diffusion. But he resigned from this role because he disagreed with the company's opinion that training generative AI models on copyrighted works is "fair use". He said that despite his colleagues having a more "nuanced" view on this issue than some competitors, he wasn't able to change the "prevailing opinion" on fair use at the company. Legal battles Creatives and corporations have been embroiled in a long battle surrounding the use of AI in creative industries. In August, a copyright lawsuit filed by a group of artists against AI companies, including Stability AI, Midjourney and DeviantArt was allowed to proceed by a US judge. The class action lawsuit alleges that Stable Diffusion used the artists' works as "training images" to produce AI-generated images "in the style" of the original images. While members of SAG-AFTRA, the US actor's union behind the Hollywood strikes last year, have been striking against huge video game franchises for failing to provide "equitable treatment with respect to AI". The union said that the strike comes after 18 months of failed negotiations. Earlier this year, the union struck a deal with talent marketplace platform Narrativ that will allow performers to license their AI voice replicas for use in digital audio ads. SAG-AFTRA said the start-up agreed to its requirements around AI informed consent, compensation and individual control, as well as additional guardrails. Don't miss out on the knowledge you need to succeed. Sign up for the Daily Brief, Silicon Republic's digest of need-to-know sci-tech news.

Thom Yorke and Abba's Björn Ulvaeus among 11,000 artists warning of AI threats

Songwriters from Abba and Radiohead and authors including Kazuo Ishiguro and James Patterson are among more than 11,000 artists warning against the threat of artificial intelligence to the creative industries. "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 letter on Tuesday said. Alongside Abba's Björn Ulvaeus and Thom Yorke and other members of Radiohead, signatories include actors Julianne Moore and Kevin Bacon, authors Ian Rankin, Antonia Fraser and Kate Mosse, musicians Robert Smith of The Cure, Jason Kay and Billy Bragg. The warning comes as capital continues to flood into AI, with ChatGPT creator OpenAI raising $6.6bn earlier this month and AI search start-up Perplexity targeting an $8bn valuation in its fourth round of funding this year, even as both companies face lawsuits from publishers. Many artists are concerned content generated by AI -- dubbed "slop" by critics -- threatens to drown out human-created work, while offering scant payment for the copyrighted pieces on which some AI systems have been trained. The latest protest letter was organised by Ed Newton-Rex, a former executive at UK-based generative AI start-up Stability who now runs Fairly Trained, which campaigns for creators to be compensated when their works are caught in the vast data troves used to build large AI models. Newton-Rex has argued that while tech companies are investing tens of billions of dollars in the chips and computing infrastructure to train ever-larger AI systems, they have been reluctant to pay for the data those models need. Creative industry executives and artists are increasingly worried AI companies are ripping off their works without payment or attribution when training large language models. However, artists, authors and musicians often lack a single entity as powerful as Google or Microsoft-backed OpenAI to support the fight to project their copyrighted works. Creative industries figures also fear government officials are being won over by the promise of investment by tech companies when drawing up policies over intellectual property protections. In the UK, the government is expected to consult this year on plans to allow AI companies to take content from artists unless they specifically "opt out". However, this has been seen as impracticable and costly by those in the creative sector. Earlier this week, Rupert Murdoch's Dow Jones and the New York Post accused Perplexity of a "brazen scheme" to rip off their journalism in a lawsuit filed in New York on Monday. The case follows a similar lawsuit against OpenAI from the New York Times. OpenAI has struck licensing deals with other publishers, including the Financial Times.

'AI is a major unjust threat': Thom Yorke, Julianne Moore, and thousands more sign open letter denouncing AI

Radiohead's Thom Yorke, actress Julianne Moore, and Nobel Prize-winning novelist Kazuo Ishiguro are among the signatories. Credit: Samir Hussein/WireImage / Karwai Tang/WireImage / John Phillips/BAFTA via Getty Images An open letter signed by 13,500 creatives, including Radiohead's Thom Yorke, actress Julianne Moore, and Nobel Prize-winning novelist Kazuo Ishiguro, denounced the use of their work to train AI. "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," reads the brief letter. AI systems like OpenAI's ChatGPT train on preexisting text, images, video, and other creative materials. Released Tuesday, the 29-word letter garnered signatures from a wide-vary of actors, musicians, authors, and organizations. Signatories include actor Kevin Bacon, comedian Kate McKinnon, author Ann Patchett, ABBA's Björn Ulvaeus, as well as composers. The CEO of Hachette Book Group and the head of Songwriters of North America also signed on. The letter comes after the Artist Rights Alliance (ARA), a non-profit advocacy organization, released a music industry-specific open letter back in April. "For many working musicians, artists and songwriters who are just trying to make ends meet, this would be catastrophic," the letter said. "We must protect against the predatory use of AI to steal professional artists' voices and likenesses, violate creators' rights, and destroy the music ecosystem." It received signatures from over 200 artists including Billie Eilish, J Balvin, Imagine Dragons, Stevie Wonder, Nicki Minaj, Pearl Jam, Katy Perry, The Jonas Brothers, Jon Bon Jovi, Julia Michaels, Ryan Tedder, and the estates of Bob Marley and Frank Sinatra. Owners of work used to train AI have launches a series of copyright actions against AI scraping. Earlier this month Penguin Random House became the first of the big five publishers to change its copyright wording to target AI. The Recording Industry Association of America, which represents Sony Music Entertainment, Universal Music Group, and Warner Music Group, sued AI music start up Suno for training on copyrighted music, but Suno argued its protected by fair use. In 2023, The New York Times sued OpenAI and Microsoft for copyright infringement.

Thousands of creatives join forces to combat AI data scraping - SiliconANGLE

Thousands of creatives join forces to combat AI data scraping Some of the biggest names in the creative arts have added their names to a letter addressing what for them is the growing problem of the unlicensed use of creative works for AI training. The signatories call data scraping a "major, unjust threat to the livelihoods of the people behind those works, and must not be permitted." The list currently includes 13,500 names, many of them big hitters in their respective industries. The list includes the novelists Sir Kazuo Ishiguro and William Boyd, the actors Kevin Bacon and Julianne Moore, and the musicians Robert Smith (The Cure) and Thom Yorke (Radiohead). The list also includes numerous composers, music producers, graphic designers, illustrators, journalists, and just about every other creative you can imagine who may have fallen prey to the practice of data scraping. This comes at a time when AI companies are in constant battles with various creative industries, with one lawsuit following another, whether in the music industry, related to creative writing, or news media. Philosophically, artists have called AI's use of their creations an "assault on human creativity" while there's also the matter of AI potentially displacing much of the world's workforce. This latest missive decrying AI copyright infringement probably has the largest number of creative high-flyers behind any complaint so far. According to the Guardian, the person who organized it was the British composer and former AI executive for Stability AI Ltd., Ed Newton-Rex. Newton-Rex fell out with the company in June this year over the training of AI models. "There are three key resources that generative AI companies need to build AI models: people, compute, and data," he told the Guardian. "They spend vast sums on the first two - sometimes a million dollars per engineer, and up to a billion dollars per model. But they expect to take the third - training data - for free." His contention is simple: When AI companies use the word 'training,' what they really mean is taking someone's hard work without giving anything back. He doesn't believe "opt-out" schemes will work, such as the one proposed by the U.K. government, stating that it's "totally unfair to put the burden" on the artist. The solution, he says, is an "opt-in" model. As governments around the world have been talking for years about taming the "Wild West" of the internet, one gets the feeling that so far they've turned their cheeks to what is surely a Wild West of AI art theft.

Kevin Bacon, Julianne Moore, Thom Yorke, and 10K+ creators sign warning against AI use of their work

More than 10,000 professional actors, musicians, writers, and other creators have signed a petition urging against AI using their work without permission for training. British composer Ed Newton-Rex wrote the statement and set up the signature collection. The ranks of signers include many famous names. They range from Hollywood stars like Kevin Bacon and Julianne Moore to record-selling musicians and composers like Thom Yorke of Radiohead and Abba's Björn Ulvaeus and best-selling authors Harlan Coben and Ted Chiang. The statement itself is brief and to the point: "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." Essentially, the signers are anxious that their copyrighted works are contributing without their permission to the enormous amounts of data used to train generative AI models behind ChatGPT, Gemini, Meta AI, and so many other text, image, audio, and video creation tools. They claim that it violates various intellectual property laws and regulations. Along with individual celebrities, the statement has garnered the approval of many organizations in the creative space. SAG-AFTRA, the American Federation of Musicians, Universal Music Group, and the International Publishers Association are just a few who signed in support. There's an issue of compensation as well. For instance, Meta wrote hefty paychecks to celebrities for permission to use their voices with its new Meta AI assistant. Without that, these complaints cause issues, like when OpenAI was accused of mimicking Scarlett Johansson's voice for ChatGPT in imitation of the movie Her. Newton-Rex knows the AI space well, having formerly worked on generative AI audio models at Stability AI. He has claimed he left partly because he believed Stability AI went too far in leaning on the fair use doctrine for training its models. He now runs Fairly Trained, which describes itself as a "non-profit certifying generative AI companies for fairer training data practices." This is far from the first such lawsuit. OpenAI alone has multiple pending cases from writers who claim ChatGPT infringed on their work, while Suno, Udio, and other AI music creators are dealing with lawsuits from the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) and major music labels. The complaints, legal and otherwise, are growing as the AI tools they rail against explode in popularity. They are a facet of the bigger ethical and regulatory questions currently unanswered around AI models and their training data. You probably won't notice any impact on AI tools in the short term, but the signers clearly hope to push the debate over ethical AI training to the forefront and shape the ultimate form of regulations and laws surrounding the practice. It won't do much on its own, but in tandem with the resolution of legal challenges and new regulations, it could be a factor in how AI companies design and build their models in the years ahead or whether the current system of creative work compensation looks anything like it does today.

AI sparks backlash from ABBA, Radiohead, and The Cure-thousands of artists sign letter protesting the use of their work to train robots

Musicians from ABBA, Radiohead and The Cure have joined actors and authors in signing a protest letter against the mining of their artistry to build artificial intelligence tools. Thousands of artists signed the letter released Tuesday -- the latest public warning about AI tools that can spit out synthetic images, music and writings after being trained on huge troves of human-made works. "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," says the petition. Among the signatories are Björn Ulvaeus of the Swedish supergroup ABBA, The Cure's Robert Smith and Thom Yorke and his Radiohead bandmates. Also signing were writers including Nobel-winning novelist Kazuo Ishiguro and actors Julianne Moore, Kevin Bacon and Rosario Dawson.

Thousands of creatives sign petition against AI data scraping | TechCrunch

What do the actor Kevin Bacon, the novelist Kazuo Ishiguro, the musician Robert Smith, and the journalist and historian Sidney Blumenthal have in common? They are among the 11,500 signatories of a petition against unlicensed use of creative works for AI training. "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," signatories warn. The petition comes at a time when lawmakers are considering how to respond to data being scraped for generative AI development. Last week, the Financial Times reported the U.K. government plans to consult on an 'opt out' model for AI content scraping. Per the Guardian, the petition was organized by British composer Ed Newton-Rex, a former exec at Stability AI, who said creatives are exceptionally worried. He accuses AI companies of "dehumanizing" people's art and work by calling it "training data."

ABBA, The Cure and Radiohead sign AI protest letter

Among the 13,500 signatories protesting the use of creatives' work to train aritificial intelligence tools are composer Max Richter, writer Kazuo Ishiguro, as well as actors Julianne Moore and Kevin Bacon. Thousands of artists, including musicians from ABBA, The Cure and Radiohead, have signed a protest letter against using creatives' work to train aritificial intelligence tools. Musicians, actors and authors signed the letter warning against the mining of their artistry, in what is the latest outcry about AI tools that can spit out synthetic images, music and writings after being trained on huge troves of human-made works. "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," says the statement. Among the 13,500 signatories are Björn Ulvaeus of ABBA, The Cure's Robert Smith, Thom Yorke and his Radiohead bandmates, and composers John Rutter and Max Richter. Other industry figures who signed the statement are writers including Nobel-winning novelist Kazuo Ishiguro, Emma Donoghue, Ian Rankin, James Patterson, Ted Chiang and Joanne Harris, as well as actors Julianne Moore, Kevin Bacon, Rosario Dawson and Kate McKinnon. Following the release of the statement, Gee Davy, the interim CEO for the Association of Independent Music has said: "On behalf of the UK's independent music community - businesses who are proud to work in partnership with artists - we support this statement from Fairly Trained." "To achieve the benefits of AI for creativity, we urge policymakers not to lose sight of the need for strong copyright protections," he added. "This is vital to ensure a healthy future for those who create, invest in and release music across genres and all communities, regions and nations of the UK." This recent statement follows ongoing legal issues between the creative world and tech firms over the use of their work to train artificial intelligence models such as ChatGPT. Several artists have already spoken out about the use of AI in their fields, including Nick Cave, who has previously called ChatGPT songwriting "a grotesque mockery of what it is to be human" and labelled the impact of AI in music as "unbelievably disturbing." Earlier this year, more than 200 artists - including Stevie Wonder, Billie Eilish, Nicki Minaj, R.E.M., and the estates of Bob Marley and Frank Sinatra - featured on an open letter submitted by the Artist Rights Alliance non-profit, calling on artificial intelligence tech companies, developers, platforms, digital music services and platforms to stop using AI "to infringe upon and devalue the rights of human artists." The letter stated: "Make no mistake: we believe that, when used responsibly, AI has enormous potential to advance human creativity and in a manner that enables the development and growth of new and exciting experiences for music fans everywhere. Unfortunately, some platforms and developers are employing AI to sabotage creativity and undermine artists, songwriters, musicians and rightsholders." "When used irresponsibly, AI poses enormous threats to our ability to protect our privacy, our identities, our music and our livelihoods," the letter continued, before adding: "This assault on human creativity must be stopped. We must protect against the predatory use of AI to steal professional artists' voices and likenesses, violate creators' rights, and destroy the music ecosystem." However, not all musicians oppose the use of AI across the music industry. Canadian electro artist Grimes believes streaming services such as Spotify should have a selection dedicated to AI songs, and has even encouraged fans to use her voice "without penalty" (adding that she would split royalties on successful AI-generated tracks using her voice). DJ David Guetta is another big name backing the use of AI tools in music, while the legendary Nile Rodgers told Euronews Culture that while using AI-generated vocals to copy another person's sound is "horrible", using AI to "artistically express yourself and make better music is fantastic."

ABBA's Bjorn among 11,000 artists issuing AI warning

Thousands of artists including ABBA singer Bjorn Ulvaeus, Hollywood actress Julianne Moore and Nobel laureate Kazuo Ishiguro have signed a statement warning about the unlicensed use of artificial intelligence. Some 11,500 stars of music, literature, screen and stage had put their names to the statement by Tuesday, as fears mount over tech companies using existing creative works to train up AI models without permission from their original creators. "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," says the brief statement. In Hollywood, studios have been experimenting with AI in recent years, from bringing deceased movie stars back using realistic "digital replicas," to using computer-generated background figures to reduce the number of actors needed for battle scenes. Similar fears have gripped other creative industries. The statement was organized by British composer and former AI executive Ed Newton-Rex, the Guardian reported. Newton-Rex told the newspaper that generative AI companies including his former employer Stability AI were using copyrighted contented to train their models without paying the original creators. "When AI companies call this 'training data,' they dehumanize it. What we're talking about is people's work -- their writing, their art, their music," he said. Last year, authors including John Grisham, Jodi Picoult and George RR Martin sued OpenAI for "systematic theft on a mass scale." Hollywood stars including Pedro Pascal, Jane Fonda and Mark Hamill last month backed a sweeping AI safety bill in California that was ultimately vetoed by Governor Gavin Newsom. Other artists have chosen to collaborate with AI. Facebook owner Meta last week announced that Hollywood actor Casey Affleck and horror studio Blumhouse were partnering to test its AI movie generating software by making a series of short films. Among other famous signatories to Monday's statement were Radiohead singer Thom Yorke, author James Patterson and actor Kevin Bacon.

ABBA, Radiohead, and the Cure Musicians Sign Letter Protesting Unlicensed AI Use of Works

Musicians from ABBA, Radiohead, and the Cure have joined actors and authors in signing a protest letter against the mining of their artistry to build artificial intelligence tools. Thousands of artists signed the letter released Tuesday -- the latest public warning about AI tools that can spit out synthetic images, music, and writings after being trained on huge troves of human-made works. "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," says the petition. Among the signatories are Björn Ulvaeus of the Swedish supergroup ABBA, the Cure's Robert Smith, and Thom Yorke and his Radiohead bandmates. Also signing were writers including Nobel-winning novelist Kazuo Ishiguro and actors Julianne Moore, Kevin Bacon, and Rosario Dawson.

Thousands of actors, artists call AI 'major, unjust threat'

More than 11,000 actors and artists signed a statement labeling the unlicensed use of creative works for artificial intelligence training a "major unjust threat" to creators. "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 read. This statement, which was also signed by directors, authors, singers, journalists and photographers, comes as creators have been locked in a months-long battle to increase industry protections from AI. Last year, actors went on strike calling for more regulations to protect themselves against advancements in AI that can replicate performers' voices, appearances and movements, which raised critical concerns about individuals' control over their own likenesses. SAG-AFTRA, a union representing roughly 160,000 media professionals, also asked for wage increases and boosts in compensation for streaming. In November 2023, SAG-AFTRA released a summary of the union's tentative agreement with the studios, which would allow members to be able to give their consent and be compensated for generative AI used to replicate their likeness. A tentative deal from earlier this year with leading record labels includes protections for artists from the use of AI technology and, if ratified, would take effect immediately and span until the end of 2026. Under the agreement, the terms "artist," "singer," and "royalty artist" will include only humans, the union said. Artists have raised concerns about how AI-generated music can be damaging due to its impersonation of human artists. The deal also required "clear and conspicuous consent" and "minimum compensation requirements" before the release of sound recording that uses a digital replication of an artist's voice, according to the union. The deal also included increased minimums, health and retirement improvements, and an increase in the percentage of streaming revenue to be covered by contributions and other gains, according to the union's statement.

ABBA, Radiohead and The Cure musicians sign AI protest letter against 'unlicensed use' of works

LONDON -- Musicians from ABBA, Radiohead and The Cure have joined actors and authors in signing a protest letter against the mining of their artistry to build artificial intelligence tools. Thousands of artists signed the letter released Tuesday -- the latest public warning about AI tools that can spit out synthetic images, music and writings after being trained on huge troves of human-made works. "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," says the petition. Among the signatories are Björn Ulvaeus of the Swedish supergroup ABBA, The Cure's Robert Smith and Thom Yorke and his Radiohead bandmates. Also signing were writers including Nobel-winning novelist Kazuo Ishiguro and actors Julianne Moore, Kevin Bacon and Rosario Dawson. Bestselling novelist James Patterson signed Tuesday's letter and another open letter last year organized by the Authors Guild, which later brought a lawsuit against AI companies that is still proceeding in a New York federal court.

ABBA's Bjorn among 11,000 artists issuing AI warning

Los Angeles (United States) (AFP) - Thousands of artists including ABBA singer Bjorn Ulvaeus, Hollywood actress Julianne Moore and Nobel laureate Kazuo Ishiguro have signed a statement warning about the unlicensed use of artificial intelligence. Some 11,500 stars of music, literature, screen and stage had put their names to the statement by Tuesday, as fears mount over tech companies using existing creative works to train up AI models without permission from their original creators. "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," says the brief statement. In Hollywood, studios have been experimenting with AI in recent years, from bringing deceased movie stars back using realistic "digital replicas," to using computer-generated background figures to reduce the number of actors needed for battle scenes. Similar fears have gripped other creative industries. The statement was organized by British composer and former AI executive Ed Newton-Rex, the Guardian reported. Newton-Rex told the newspaper that generative AI companies including his former employer Stability AI were using copyrighted contented to train their models without paying the original creators. "When AI companies call this 'training data,' they dehumanize it. What we're talking about is people's work -- their writing, their art, their music," he said. Last year, authors including John Grisham, Jodi Picoult and George RR Martin sued OpenAI for "systematic theft on a mass scale." Hollywood stars including Pedro Pascal, Jane Fonda and Mark Hamill last month backed a sweeping AI safety bill in California that was ultimately vetoed by Governor Gavin Newsom. Other artists have chosen to collaborate with AI. Facebook owner Meta last week announced that Hollywood actor Casey Affleck and horror studio Blumhouse were partnering to test its AI movie generating software by making a series of short films. Among other famous signatories to Monday's statement were Radiohead singer Thom Yorke, author James Patterson and actor Kevin Bacon.

ABBA, Radiohead and The Cure musicians sign AI protest letter against 'unlicensed use' of works

LONDON (AP) -- Musicians from ABBA, Radiohead and The Cure have joined actors and authors in signing a protest letter against the mining of their artistry to build artificial intelligence tools. Thousands of artists signed the letter released Tuesday -- the latest public warning about AI tools that can spit out synthetic images, music and writings after being trained on huge troves of human-made works. "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," says the petition. Among the signatories are Björn Ulvaeus of the Swedish supergroup ABBA, The Cure's Robert Smith and Thom Yorke and his Radiohead bandmates. Also signing were writers including Nobel-winning novelist Kazuo Ishiguro and actors Julianne Moore, Kevin Bacon and Rosario Dawson. Bestselling novelist James Patterson signed Tuesday's letter and another open letter last year organized by the Authors Guild, which later brought a lawsuit against AI companies that is still proceeding in a New York federal court.

ABBA, Radiohead join 10,500 artists in AI data grab protest

Washington | More than 10,500 creative professionals, including Thom Yorke from Radiohead, actress Julianne Moore, and Nobel Prize-winning novelist Kazuo Ishiguro, have signed an open letter condemning "unlicensed use of creative works" to develop artificial intelligence systems such as OpenAI's ChatGPT. Use of creative work without a license for AI development is "a major, unjust threat to the livelihoods of the people behind those works, and must not be permitted," the brief, 29-word letter says.

ABBA, Radiohead and the Cure Musicians Sign AI Protest Letter Against 'Unlicensed Use' of Works

LONDON (AP) -- Musicians from ABBA, Radiohead and The Cure have joined actors and authors in signing a protest letter against the mining of their artistry to build artificial intelligence tools. Thousands of artists signed the letter released Tuesday -- the latest public warning about AI tools that can spit out synthetic images, music and writings after being trained on huge troves of human-made works. "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," says the petition. Among the signatories are Björn Ulvaeus of the Swedish supergroup ABBA, The Cure's Robert Smith and Thom Yorke and his Radiohead bandmates. Also signing were writers including Nobel-winning novelist Kazuo Ishiguro and actors Julianne Moore, Kevin Bacon and Rosario Dawson. Bestselling novelist James Patterson signed Tuesday's letter and another open letter last year organized by the Authors Guild, which later brought a lawsuit against AI companies that is still proceeding in a New York federal court. Copyright 2024 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.