Creativity is becoming increasingly important as an economic factor: the culture and creative industries (CCI) generated a gross value added of around 95 billion euros in Germany in 2021, ranking second among all sectors, with eleven submarkets and 1.8 million employees – including 30% solo self-employed. Furthermore, the CCI’s innovative capability and problem-solving abilities have an impact on other sectors, contributing significantly to the German economy’s overall competitiveness. The term “AI but fair” refers to a position document on artificial intelligence (AI) produced by 15 German art and creative associations. In it, associations from the fields of text, editing, journalism, graphics, illustration, photography, and art advocate for improved protection of their creative works against unauthorised use, the strengthening of copyright legislation, and the payment of reimbursement for the use of their works.
AI systems such as Chat GPT (text), Stable Diffusion (images), AIVA AI (music), and others have enabled the mass production of creative content that was previously only achievable by highly skilled professionals. However, without suitable instruction material, AI systems cannot produce text, images, or music; the quality of the training material has a direct influence on the quality of the results. Developers use the works of creative artists to provide AI systems with the necessary data – “without being asked, without consent, and without remuneration.” Furthermore, the creators are denied a financial share in the exploitation of the AI results produced on the basis of the material. In view of rapidly advancing AI technologies, they say, “the following steps and demands are existential in the interest of creative workers”:
- The works and performances of creative artists must also be protected in the digital space. The technical possibility to read out works via text and data mining must not legitimise any use.
- Remuneration for the use of works is the economic basis on which creatives work. If AI systems clearly pursue economic interests with their operation, the associated use of works for commercial purposes must be counterbalanced by remuneration.
- The novelty of the technology reveals legal uncertainty to the detriment of the protection of creative workers. Legislators are therefore called upon to create the appropriate legal basis with regard to copyright and data protection.
- The German Ethics Council warns: “AI must not replace humans”. An essential requirement for this is the preservation of the protection of the personal intellectual creations of the creators. The signatories expect political decision-makers to stand up for the approximately 1.8 million people employed in the German cultural and creative industries.
Transparent training data is being demanded as a condition of access for AI providers; AI-generated media must be labelled accordingly so that users can quickly and clearly see whether a text, image, piece of music or video was created and checked by humans or generated by AI. It is also important to better protect the public from fake news or videos. “We appeal to those responsible in politics, institutions, associations and to the legislator to do everything possible to maintain and strengthen the performance of creative and cultural workers.
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