Nearly 800 artists, writers, actors and musicians signed a new campaign against “mass piracy” by AI companies. Signatories to the campaign – called “Stealing Is Not Innovation” – include writers George Saunders and Jodi Picoult, actors Cate Blanchett and Scarlett Johansson, and musicians such as the bands REM, Billy Corgan and The Roots.
“Driven by fierce competition for leadership in new GenAI technology, profit-hungry technology companies, including the world’s wealthiest and private equity-backed enterprises, have copied vast amounts of creative content online without authorization or paying those who created it,” a press release said. “This illegal intellectual property grab fosters an information ecosystem dominated by a meaningless artificial avalanche of misinformation, deepfakes, and low-quality content (‘AI slop’), threatening to collapse AI models and directly threatening America’s AI superiority and international competitiveness.”
Advocacy is an effort Human Artistry CampaignA group of organizations including the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), the Professional Sports Players Association, and artist unions such as SAG-AFTRA. Stealing Is Not Innovation campaign messages will appear in full-page ads in news outlets and on social media. Specifically, the campaign calls for licensing agreements and “a healthy enforcement environment”, as well as giving artists the right to opt out of their work being used to train generic AI.
At the federal level, President Donald Trump and his tech industry allies are attempting to control how states regulate AI and punish those who try. At an industry level, tech companies and rights owners, once on opposing sides, are increasingly cutting licensing deals that allow AI companies to use protected work – licensing content appears to be a solution both sides can live with, at least for now. For example, major record labels have now partnered with AI music startups to provide their catalogs for AI remixing and model training. Digital publishers, some of whom have sued AI companies training their work, have supported a licensing standard that outlets can use to prevent their content from appearing in AI search results. Some outlets have signed individual deals with tech companies that allow AI chatbots to present news content (Disclosure: Vox Media, The VergeThe parent company of OpenAI has a licensing deal with OpenAI.)
