Copyright and Artificial Intelligence – Why politicians urgently need to act now

tools Generative artificial intelligence (AI) are rapidly being used in many sectors, companies, and organizations to create content of all kinds. These tools offer both a significant opportunity to promote creative and business activities and a considerable legal risk, even leading to existential threats for countless artists.

This is primarily due to existing uncertainties and a lack of legal frameworks, particularly regarding intellectual property issues. Generative AI brings with it a multitude of risks, problems, and open questions that urgently require political and legal solutions.

Some even speak of this as the greatest expropriation of intellectual creativity in the history of mankind. This reflects the magnitude of the problem.”

also demands that the interests of authors must finally be taken into account when using generative AI German Cultural Council.

What is the core of the problem?

The German Cultural Council has issued a statement on copyright aspects in the context of artificial intelligence (AI) . It makes clear that numerous authors, practicing artists, creative minds, and companies in the cultural and creative industries are strongly interested in applying these new technologies to their work.

They are using and experimenting with these technologies. However, as the German Cultural Council notes, the development of AI is not merely a novel technological innovation. Rather, it generates machine-generated results that are increasingly indistinguishable from human creations, and whose development process cannot be traced by humans. This is a fundamental shift, the consequences of which are not yet foreseeable.

The development of AI models is progressing at a breathtaking pace. In particular, general-purpose AI modelsthat generate content in the form of text, images, audio, and video ("generative AI") have quickly become a central topic in the copyright debate. Generative AI has significant, sometimes existential, consequences for copyright holders and practicing artists.

The same applies to other rights holders such as publishers, film and music producers, game developers, and broadcasters. Furthermore, AI is also highly relevant for educational institutions, memory institutions, and libraries. Most stakeholders face both risks and opportunities, to varying degrees.

Copyright issues surrounding AI are highly controversial and urgently require clarification. While they are now being addressed at the international, European, and national levels, a reliable copyright framework is still lacking.

As early as April 2024, a panel at the FutureLaw Conference 2024 of Stanford Law School examined pressing questions about copyright and discussed technical solutions:

However, given the immense threat and financial damage to copyright holders worldwide, the pace and implementation of recommendations for action should be significantly faster.

What are the demands of the German Cultural Council?

In its statement, the German Cultural Council first undertakes a copyright inventory and, based on this, presents initial considerations for possible legal regulations. This concerns both copyright regulations relating to the "input," i.e., the training of generative AI systems, and the "output," i.e., the use of contentcreated by generative AI. It addresses transparency and labeling requirements for the use of AI-generated content.

The German Cultural Council calls for a balance of the interests of all parties involved, in particular consideration of the interests of authors, performing artists and all other rights holders.”

In the event of use, it is imperative that appropriate remuneration is paid, which allows the rights holders to participate in the economic benefits arising from the use of the protected works and services in AI training and subsequent uses.

The German Cultural Council calls for a comprehensive legal policy discussion on the open copyright issues. This discussion has not yet taken place sufficiently.

The managing director of the German Cultural Council, Olaf Zimmermann, said verbatim:

“The issue of artificial intelligence raises highly complex copyright questions. If we fail to establish secure legal frameworks in this area, authors and companies in the cultural and creative industries will face an existential threat. The future federal government must give due consideration to the demands of the German Cultural Council regarding the use of AI-generated content and create reliable legal regulations. Only in this way can damage to the cultural sector be averted.”

Click here for the full statement of the German Cultural Council on copyright issues related to artificial intelligence.