At the Parliamentary Evening of the Authors' Rights Initiative, authors and performing artists made it clear to the numerous politicians present at the delphi LUX cinema that action must be taken quickly on the subject of artificial intelligence.
If models such as ChatGPT or Midjourney that use works of third parties to generate new output are not regulated, creators will be degenerated into unpaid suppliers of raw data for AI systems.
On the occasion of the UNESCO World Intellectual Property Day, the Initiative Urheberrecht (IU / Authors‘ Rights Initiative) organized a Parliamentary Evening under the motto "The Art of Politics - The Politics of Culture". In their statements, the speakers from art, politics and science referred to the effects of generative artificial intelligence (AI) on art and culture, media and society as a whole.
Matthias Hornschuh (composer, spokesman for the creatives in the Authors' Rights Initiative) opened the event by pointing out how momentous AI is for authors and for society. "If images lose their character as a reflection of reality, then that means the end for the profession of photographers, who until now have testified to the authenticity of their images," Hornschuh said.
Dr. Christian Meyer-Seitz (Head of Department III Commercial and Business Law, German Ministry of Justice) praised the IU's recently published statement on AI. In his keynote speech, Dr. Niklas Maamar, Heinrich Hubmann Award Winner 2023, provided food for thought for the legal world of tomorrow.
Dr. Sebastian Stober, Professor of Artificial Intelligence at Otto von Guericke University Magdeburg, suggested to refer to the systems as “machine” rather than “artificial” intelligence. He analyzed the market and showed why weaknesses of current AI systems, such as twisting or inventing facts, will not be solved technically in the foreseeable future. He also called for clear regulatory guidelines.
German Journalists' Association legal counsel Hanna Möllers, also a journalist, said, "How much AI affects our society depends on how quickly policymakers put up guardrails. Politics must act quickly!"
Diane Weigmann (singer / songwriter, "Lemonbabies") stated, "The potential of AI is tremendously impressive, for example in medicine or finance ... but in art? Every artist has a need to make art. AI does not have this."
"Amongst others, we are calling for AI-generated images and other content to be labeled. We need a clear distinction between real photos and artificial images. The origin and authorship of images must remain traceable," said photographer and managing director of the FREELENS photography professional association, Prof. Heike Ollertz.
Lawyer Prof. Dr. Thomas Höppner (Hausfeld), who played a key role in the IU's statement, clarified: "Big tech like Google, Microsoft/OpenAI and Amazon transforms input from authors into new content. Quickly, when AI is used for press products, for example, in-depth reports turn into fake news."
The joint statement of the Authors‘ Rights Initiative and its more than 40 member organizations on the topic of artificial intelligence is directed in particular at European policymakers, who will soon be negotiating the AI Act in the trilogue. The initiative welcomes that on 27th April representatives of the European Parliament already agreed to subject generative AI to particular obligations in the AI Act: https://urheber.info/diskurs/call-for-safeguards-around-generative-ai