Advocate for fair modern copyright laws and regulation around AI generated art and content
Advocate for fair modern copyright laws and regulation around AI generated art and content
The Issue
I am a filmmaker. I have seen the rapid advancement of AI and like many in my industry I am concerned. My astonishment and optimism is often overshadowed with ethical concerns regarding this technology and greed.
I need to clarify a few things.
1: I am not a hater of progress or change. I see many incredible uses for this technology.
2: This is bigger than creative work of course. I worry about fake news, deep fakes, misinformation and general chaos that could emerge from a technology this powerful being easily accessible. I hope world governments will take this aspect very seriously once they see the capabilities of this tech inevitably being used with malicious intent.
3: So much of the online discourse seems to be people either hating this technology or mocking those with concerns. The amount of social media conflict where artists are being told that they are essentially bitter and nearly obsolete in the face of inevitable change is not only cruel but missing the point. Society is still run by humans. We control the change. Nothing is impossible and nothing is inevitable. This conversation needs to be more than throwing stones between artists and those who think this “progress” is destiny. Boycotts work and how we choose to spend our money will always determine what the market values. There are so many people who find this exponential progress with a lack of humanity disturbing. Let’s choose to not financially reward companies we disagree with. We have more power than we think.
This petition is about art and what we value as humans. Maybe the future of humanity is purely science and technology driven, but I believe that a core part of what makes us human is our ability to love and create art of all kinds. I think storytelling and art are not just window dressing, but absolutely vital to our societal progress in often intangible ways. From creating empathy, activating the imagination, and inspiring connection, I think art is a vital part of a healthy culture and community. That being said, this is not just for artists. You do not have to be a filmmaker, musician, painter, or photographer to engage with this. These nuanced choices about regulation and our future will impact the entire economy and our values as a society. Ideally people from all industries and walks of life can find a piece of themselves in this petition.
Over a year ago when I first became aware of AI, some immediate questions and concerns popped up that still remain unaddressed. Why do we wait for chaos as opposed to preparing for it? Foresight will ease a lot of global stress around this issue. Quality of life and peace of mind is as important as relentless technological progress. This petition is calling on leaders and politicians to engage in debate and take public stances on this issue. Lobbying and money in politics are insidious powers that will control the results if we do not raise our voices. Every conversation with my peers seemed to be about AI but the media, industry leaders, and politicians have been relatively silent on debating the ethics and copyright. I went to Change.org to find a petition to sign and was surprised to not find anything current with momentum. Hopefully we can be productive with our anxieties and gather people with similar concerns in one place with this petition.
AI image generators like Sora and Midjourney train on our data even though we never granted them consent. I am not an advocate for limiting the progress of technology BUT a technology that relies on all of our data to learn and exist should not also threaten our livelihoods and economic security. I also view this theft as lazy and was shocked it was (maybe) legal when I first saw it. Modern technology requires modern sensible regulation. There are a number of lawsuits about this very issue but again, our voices and public sentiment can go a long way.
I find it unethical if major studios, advertisers, and streamers kill the livelihoods of so many craftsmen and artists while then selling products to us that were made by a technology that couldn't exist without us. If brands, companies, studios, and corporations are not allowed to own, copyright, or profit off of AI generated work, then the way these machines learn seems more acceptable. It should be relegated to the same standards as concept and fan art. These companies know that what they are doing is ethically wrong too. OpenAI and most of the top AI companies intentionally hide their training data. If they believed they weren’t doing anything wrong, they would not go to such great lengths to hide (see the NYT’s lawsuit against OpenAI on this).
AI generated content needs to be open sourced and always based in the public domain if it is going to be training on the whole internet. Companies should not be able to make commercials and advertisements using this technology since it is replacing the very people that made the work it trained on. Licensing back to all the data it scraped is impossible since it has trained on countless works without consent. Not to mention the prior point about how these companies have gone from being open to closed. The only responsible LLM is one that is trained on a finite set of licensed content, similar to how the stock footage industry works.
America should lead general common sense regulation on this issue. The fear and uncertainty amongst artists, not to mention people in other industries (including tech) already being impacted by AI is palpable. If we sit back and do nothing, the ramifications for our economy will be felt by everyone while we try to catch up with regulation. Let's avoid this pain and demand regulation now.
Progress is unpredictable and we should protect communities and artists regardless of how much this technology can advance. This is about graphic designers, painters, filmmakers, animators, crew members, photographers, actors, musicians, coders, and many more. Remove all those jobs from the economy, and no amount of inflated shareholder value will save us from the real world ramifications of that much resentment and unemployment.
Stealing from the internet without consent to make a select few incredibly rich and powerful while the rest of society is trampled on is not progress. It is regression.
Let's aspire to be the most advanced and the most human. Remember, if AI was only allowed to train on art in the public domain, it would feel irrelevant and old. Our modern work and contributions are what make this a current and viable technology. This technology relies on having content to learn on. Imagine Sora AI if it was invented even just two decades ago. It would feel totally different and have much less aesthetic range. Humans push the needle forward. New innovations from camera technology and other creative tools will all end up also being the things that push AI forward too. We need to keep progressing otherwise this AI will eventually only be able to learn from AI content, cannibalizing itself, destroying creative industries, and lowering the bar for art. The majority of content on the internet will be synthetic within the next year. ChatGPT users are currently generating more text than every physical book ever written every two weeks.
AI can democratize art and raise new voices. It can allow for a clearer communication of visions and ideas. It can do all of this while living in harmony with all of the people it relied upon to exist. Copyright and ownership protections will save industries, keep people inspired to go into the arts as a viable way to make a living, and push the technology forward. Advertising with AI should be illegal unless all of the countless people who had their data stolen to train those programs get paid. Some work is more than a job. These fields are full of passion and purpose, giving as much to the audience as they do to the artist. I like the idea that a new artist can express themselves and show the world their talents. We should strive for less gatekeeping and financial obstacles. I am not opposed to using AI generated sound, text, and images for pitching ideas, research, conceptualizing, or even publicly expressing but I firmly believe that we should have rules around being able to profit from or claim ownership over this work. We all want to make film and art accessible to those who traditionally have not had access, but if we remove a living wage and career path in the process then we are doing all of those future artists and creators a disservice.
I invite more knowledgeable people than myself to the table to make adjustments to this petition. I think the only way forward is regulating ownership and the use of AI. Every AI creation should be free to access and in the public domain, unable to obtain copyright protections. If you know more or have input you wish to add, let's all be a part of making this call to action the best it can be. I am optimistic about the future.
RELEVANT NEWS, CONVERSATIONS, & IDEAS:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JrcbH0ge2WE
https://open.spotify.com/episode/47V9ewtsV3uEZabRSJ6Eac?si=c67207ca5f944fdb
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/12/27/business/media/new-york-times-open-ai-microsoft-lawsuit.html
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-business-of-fashion-podcast/id1225204588?i=1000596940902
https://www.lbbonline.com/news/in-algorithm-we-trust-the-battle-for-ais-soul/
2,718
The Issue
I am a filmmaker. I have seen the rapid advancement of AI and like many in my industry I am concerned. My astonishment and optimism is often overshadowed with ethical concerns regarding this technology and greed.
I need to clarify a few things.
1: I am not a hater of progress or change. I see many incredible uses for this technology.
2: This is bigger than creative work of course. I worry about fake news, deep fakes, misinformation and general chaos that could emerge from a technology this powerful being easily accessible. I hope world governments will take this aspect very seriously once they see the capabilities of this tech inevitably being used with malicious intent.
3: So much of the online discourse seems to be people either hating this technology or mocking those with concerns. The amount of social media conflict where artists are being told that they are essentially bitter and nearly obsolete in the face of inevitable change is not only cruel but missing the point. Society is still run by humans. We control the change. Nothing is impossible and nothing is inevitable. This conversation needs to be more than throwing stones between artists and those who think this “progress” is destiny. Boycotts work and how we choose to spend our money will always determine what the market values. There are so many people who find this exponential progress with a lack of humanity disturbing. Let’s choose to not financially reward companies we disagree with. We have more power than we think.
This petition is about art and what we value as humans. Maybe the future of humanity is purely science and technology driven, but I believe that a core part of what makes us human is our ability to love and create art of all kinds. I think storytelling and art are not just window dressing, but absolutely vital to our societal progress in often intangible ways. From creating empathy, activating the imagination, and inspiring connection, I think art is a vital part of a healthy culture and community. That being said, this is not just for artists. You do not have to be a filmmaker, musician, painter, or photographer to engage with this. These nuanced choices about regulation and our future will impact the entire economy and our values as a society. Ideally people from all industries and walks of life can find a piece of themselves in this petition.
Over a year ago when I first became aware of AI, some immediate questions and concerns popped up that still remain unaddressed. Why do we wait for chaos as opposed to preparing for it? Foresight will ease a lot of global stress around this issue. Quality of life and peace of mind is as important as relentless technological progress. This petition is calling on leaders and politicians to engage in debate and take public stances on this issue. Lobbying and money in politics are insidious powers that will control the results if we do not raise our voices. Every conversation with my peers seemed to be about AI but the media, industry leaders, and politicians have been relatively silent on debating the ethics and copyright. I went to Change.org to find a petition to sign and was surprised to not find anything current with momentum. Hopefully we can be productive with our anxieties and gather people with similar concerns in one place with this petition.
AI image generators like Sora and Midjourney train on our data even though we never granted them consent. I am not an advocate for limiting the progress of technology BUT a technology that relies on all of our data to learn and exist should not also threaten our livelihoods and economic security. I also view this theft as lazy and was shocked it was (maybe) legal when I first saw it. Modern technology requires modern sensible regulation. There are a number of lawsuits about this very issue but again, our voices and public sentiment can go a long way.
I find it unethical if major studios, advertisers, and streamers kill the livelihoods of so many craftsmen and artists while then selling products to us that were made by a technology that couldn't exist without us. If brands, companies, studios, and corporations are not allowed to own, copyright, or profit off of AI generated work, then the way these machines learn seems more acceptable. It should be relegated to the same standards as concept and fan art. These companies know that what they are doing is ethically wrong too. OpenAI and most of the top AI companies intentionally hide their training data. If they believed they weren’t doing anything wrong, they would not go to such great lengths to hide (see the NYT’s lawsuit against OpenAI on this).
AI generated content needs to be open sourced and always based in the public domain if it is going to be training on the whole internet. Companies should not be able to make commercials and advertisements using this technology since it is replacing the very people that made the work it trained on. Licensing back to all the data it scraped is impossible since it has trained on countless works without consent. Not to mention the prior point about how these companies have gone from being open to closed. The only responsible LLM is one that is trained on a finite set of licensed content, similar to how the stock footage industry works.
America should lead general common sense regulation on this issue. The fear and uncertainty amongst artists, not to mention people in other industries (including tech) already being impacted by AI is palpable. If we sit back and do nothing, the ramifications for our economy will be felt by everyone while we try to catch up with regulation. Let's avoid this pain and demand regulation now.
Progress is unpredictable and we should protect communities and artists regardless of how much this technology can advance. This is about graphic designers, painters, filmmakers, animators, crew members, photographers, actors, musicians, coders, and many more. Remove all those jobs from the economy, and no amount of inflated shareholder value will save us from the real world ramifications of that much resentment and unemployment.
Stealing from the internet without consent to make a select few incredibly rich and powerful while the rest of society is trampled on is not progress. It is regression.
Let's aspire to be the most advanced and the most human. Remember, if AI was only allowed to train on art in the public domain, it would feel irrelevant and old. Our modern work and contributions are what make this a current and viable technology. This technology relies on having content to learn on. Imagine Sora AI if it was invented even just two decades ago. It would feel totally different and have much less aesthetic range. Humans push the needle forward. New innovations from camera technology and other creative tools will all end up also being the things that push AI forward too. We need to keep progressing otherwise this AI will eventually only be able to learn from AI content, cannibalizing itself, destroying creative industries, and lowering the bar for art. The majority of content on the internet will be synthetic within the next year. ChatGPT users are currently generating more text than every physical book ever written every two weeks.
AI can democratize art and raise new voices. It can allow for a clearer communication of visions and ideas. It can do all of this while living in harmony with all of the people it relied upon to exist. Copyright and ownership protections will save industries, keep people inspired to go into the arts as a viable way to make a living, and push the technology forward. Advertising with AI should be illegal unless all of the countless people who had their data stolen to train those programs get paid. Some work is more than a job. These fields are full of passion and purpose, giving as much to the audience as they do to the artist. I like the idea that a new artist can express themselves and show the world their talents. We should strive for less gatekeeping and financial obstacles. I am not opposed to using AI generated sound, text, and images for pitching ideas, research, conceptualizing, or even publicly expressing but I firmly believe that we should have rules around being able to profit from or claim ownership over this work. We all want to make film and art accessible to those who traditionally have not had access, but if we remove a living wage and career path in the process then we are doing all of those future artists and creators a disservice.
I invite more knowledgeable people than myself to the table to make adjustments to this petition. I think the only way forward is regulating ownership and the use of AI. Every AI creation should be free to access and in the public domain, unable to obtain copyright protections. If you know more or have input you wish to add, let's all be a part of making this call to action the best it can be. I am optimistic about the future.
RELEVANT NEWS, CONVERSATIONS, & IDEAS:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JrcbH0ge2WE
https://open.spotify.com/episode/47V9ewtsV3uEZabRSJ6Eac?si=c67207ca5f944fdb
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/12/27/business/media/new-york-times-open-ai-microsoft-lawsuit.html
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-business-of-fashion-podcast/id1225204588?i=1000596940902
https://www.lbbonline.com/news/in-algorithm-we-trust-the-battle-for-ais-soul/
2,718
Supporter Voices
Petition created on March 13, 2024