Dear fellow illustrators and friends in the creative industries, this is a call to action
Let's talk about the Government's Copyright and Artificial Intelligence consultation.
If you haven’t had a chance to look into the Government’s AI consultation yet, allow me to spoil the surprise: it is NOT good news for us writers and illustrators.
In short, the Government is pushing to implement a change in UK copyright law. This would grant an exception for the use of copyrighted material in the training of AI models for commercial use.
What this means in practice is that AI companies will be lawfully permitted to collect and use all of our work (without paying us) to produce work that strives to look like ours (that they will be paid for) which will directly compete against us on the marketplace.
The Government is pushing for an OPT-OUT option, saying that this would grant us the freedom to decide whether we want our work to be used that way or not.
If this sounds all right to you, I’d like to invite you along on this fun visualisation exercise I just invented:
Imagine clicking on your favourite browser. Now search for an image or video you have posted online. Open it, copy its ULR and paste it onto whatever form OpenAI has created for the purpose of implementing the Government opt-out regulation. Tick all the necessary boxes, fill in your personal details (possibly going through a double authentication process, so they know that “it’s really you”). Press confirm. Then search for another image you posted online and start again. Now, imagine repeating the process with each single image you’ve ever posted on the internet in all of your digital life.
It might take a while.
But eventually you’ll get to the end of the process. You’ve finished telling Dall-E that you don’t want any of your work used to train their models. Awesome. Now you can head over to Midjuney and start the process all over again. Stable Diffusion might be next on your list, or Meta AI, or any of the AI companies that will pop up over the coming months and years.
If you can’t think how many files you’ve unleashed onto the net so far, recall in your mind’s eye the number of posts in your Instagram account (bearing in mind posts might have multiple media), count the images on your website. Then visualise the entirety of Pinterest.
Perhaps you’re a more persistent, single-minded and organised individual than I am. Eventually you’ll have gone through the hundreds of pictures you’ve uploaded on the internet throughout your digital life. Hooray! Visualise yourself drinking a beer, having a day out, chilling, enjoying the weekend and having a good night sleep. Tomorrow is a big day.
Tomorrow you can begin to get in touch with each and everyone of those nice, generous, like-minded people who have supported your work over the years by posting it on their blogs and social media to ask them whether, perhaps, they wouldn’t mind opting-out your images from their end too.
Awkward.
Maybe this scenario is a bit out there - but it is plausible. For an expert analysis of what an opt-out policy means, I recommend reading this article by Ed Newton-Rex on The insurmountable problems with generative AI opt-outs, if you’re not familiar with it already.
I would like to share some further consideration about the Government’s AI consultation.
The Government stated aim with this consultation is to regain the trust of the creative industries and put forward a plan that balances the interest of all stakeholders.
However I don’t see their stated aim reflected in the way this consultation has been set up.
First of all, the Government elected to commission a venture capitalist with the task of putting together this consultation. If balance and fairness were a priority, I would have thought this task ought to have been a joint endeavour between their spokesperson and other organisations that upheld competing interests.
As far as I can see (and apologies if I am mistaken), at the time I read this document I saw no attempt to explain what an opt-out option really entails for the people that would be affected by it. Through previous consultations, including the one offered by the British Copyright Council and other advocacy bodies, the Government was advised against watering down existing copyright law. These bodies have advocated, on the contrary, for a strengthened regulatory framework.
The Government has disregarded this advice entirely. In fact, it hasn’t mentioned it in the consultation document at all, as far as I am aware. Missteps such as this do very little to reassure the creative industries that the economic and existential threats they’re faced with are concerns that the Government is taking seriously.
The creative industries are not a charity case, they bring a lot of money to the UK economy (more than 5% of GDP) and contribute to the well-being of the country.
Endangering our sector to unleash the power of an unregulated generative AI ecosystem seems to me to be premature, myopic and unwise.
I can certainly see why the tech industry covets the value of creative work and, having invented some means of extraction, they are counting on putting them to good use for the benefits of their private interest.
However I like to think that the State ought to implement adequate regulation to prevent any private industry from acquiring excessive power over others. This would ensure that industries with less aggressive lobbying capacities are allowed to exist and thrive alongside more aggressive actors. It would also ensure to all of us - the workforce, the people - to enjoy a decent standard of life as a benefit of the training, working hours and resources we have all invested in in order to become proficient at our jobs. We ought to be enabled to enjoy the due economic benefit that would otherwise be siphoned off by the Tech industry.
Not only that. A world where one hegemonic reality can be imposed at the detriment of all others spells consequences that go beyond the fate of the creative industries. Spreading the responsibility to create value equally among a constellation of actors animated by a variety of motives and beliefs, is more likely to foster a multi-faceted, more resilient and less toxic economy, one where all workers have a chance to meet a dignified work opportunity. I think this is possible and I don’t think this is asking too much.
WHAT YOU CAN DO RIGHT AWAY
If you haven’t yet, please fill in the survey that the AOI has launched yesterday. This needs to be in by the 31st of January. I swear the survey is very short, super quick to fill in, but very important. It will give this advocacy body the numbers and credibility they need to confront the Government on our behalf.
Spread the word! Ask your friends to participate. If you would like to share my letter, please do so by using this link.
Alternatively, write down your thoughts and share them with your network, including a link to the survey.
WHAT YOU CAN DO NEXT
The following are templates and links that were passed onto me by one of you. They are useful tools that can be used to have your voice heard.
Email your MP. If you're in the UK, HERE is a template letter you can copy - and you can find your local MP's details HERE.
If you're a creator, email your representatives. Your publisher, record label, union - whoever represents you. HERE is a second template letter you can copy. You need to know your representatives are representing your views.
Please, respond to the consultation. You can do so also by emailing copyrightconsultation@ipo.gov.uk. If possible, write your own response, and go into all the detail you can. Feel free to use info / data I've prepared HERE. The consultation ends on the 25th of February.
Share these template letters with anyone you know. The more people get involved, the more the government will get the message that a broad copyright exception is the wrong path to be pursuing.
WHAT ELSE CAN WE DO?
This is an open question, one I have discussed in person with some of you and one that we should try to answer together. I think it is crucial that we do something to defend our rights now, while they’re still intact. We need to stand up for ourselves, ensure that our profession remains economically viable in the face of whatever technology throws at us, today and in the future.
We are creative people, let’s circulate our ideas in a fun and engaging way, let’s get together and chat, let’s get people involved. Let’s do this seriously, but have fun in the process.
I am a bit of a “social media conscientious objector” myself, but I know so many of you love being there. Why not come up with an inventive way to spread the word? How about a campaign on TikTok, if that’s your cup of tea? What would really work on a podcast? What would go viral on Instagram? I don’t know, these things have never been my strength. Plus, I am just one, and one, on its own, isn’t bound to achieve much. But thankfully there’s so many of us.
I know that you have come up with a brilliant idea even as you were reading these lines. Please jot it down, share it, act on it. Let’s be ambitious.
I will use this newsletter to share any further updates on this or adjacent topics. Feel free to subscribe to stay in the loop and forward your initiatives this way so I can share them here as well.
Let’s do something. Things aren’t set in stone and the future hasn’t happened yet.