I am calling on the UK and Northern Ireland governments to protect jobs within the creative industry from being replaced by soulless AI.

There is a huge problem currently sweeping creative industries such as animation, media production and publishing, exacerbated by Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s goal of “turbocharging” the AI industry.

Millions of workers who have spent years training and curating their skills are losing out on vital jobs due to companies favouring the use of AI in order to save money on worker’s wages, despite evidence that AI maintenance costs hundreds of thousands of dollars per year.

Companies should not be allowed to callously throw away human creation just to save a few quid, as it is an insult to both their workers and their audience. We do not want to consume media created by a machine. We want our art and stories and music to be created by human beings, as they have been for thousands and thousands of years.

Since the dawn of humanity, we have been creating beautiful art unprompted. We do it because we want to, because it is our passion. It is what we were designed to do from the moment the cavemen painted their handprints on the walls of their caves. It is the fundamental foundation of our nature. It is what makes us human. The moment our art is replaced by a machine, we lose our humanity. This is more than just saving jobs, this is about saving us.

I am sick and tired of hearing stories from animators, filmmakers and writers about how their livelihoods have been taken away from them. The years they spent cultivating their skills, and the hopelessness they now feel over their dreams and goals being shattered by the rampant use of AI.

My goals for this petition are:

• Ban companies from being able to fire and replace their workers with AI.
• Ban the use of generative AI in creative industries.
• Ensure people’s art and writing is protected from AI software stealing it for development purposes.
• Instate a Department of AI Regulation within the UK and Northern Ireland governments.

We have the chance to send a message to our governments that AI is not an industry worth investing in. They have the power to refute its harm, instead of cowardly accepting its presence under the guise that “progress cannot be stopped.”

We do not need progress for the sake of progress when real human lives are being thrown away and discarded.