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Member only guide to the Australian book industry.
MIN READ
Here’s our summary of the latest developments in artificial intelligence and our advocacy efforts on behalf of authors and illustrators.
This week an open letter was launched calling on AI companies to license the creative works upon which their AI products and services are trained. The statement, which has been signed by over 31,000 creators and organisations across the globe, says,
“The unlicensed use of creative works for training generative AI is a major, unjust threat to the livelihoods of the people behind those works and must not be permitted.”
Signatories include authors Ann Patchett, Sir Kazuo Ishiguro, Harlan Coben, Val McDermid, and Sir Ian Rankin,as well as the ASA, APRA AMCOS, ARIA, Australian Association of Voice Actors, HarperCollins Publishers, Hachette, and Penguin Random House.
We invite authors and illustrators to sign the letter and join other creators and creative organisations in resisting tech companies’ lobbying for the right to use creative work without consent or remuneration.
The Bookseller has reported that Penguin Random House has amended the copyright wording across all of their imprints globally, to include a statement saying, “No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner for the purpose of training artificial intelligence technologies or systems.” This change was implemented by Penguin in order to try to protect their authors’ intellectual property from being used to train generative AI tools.
We are heartened to see publishers standing with authors against the unpermitted and unremunerated use of their work for AI training, while also sharing the Society of Authors UK’s hope that these changes and protections will also be added to publishing contracts with PRH’s authors and illustrators. Anna Ganley of SoA UK said, “it is equally important that publishers guarantee to creators that their consent will be sought before the publisher uses—or allows the use of—generative AI in association with the production of the work—for example, for purposes of narrating, translating, images, cover design—and before the publisher grants any access to, or use of, the work by an AI system.”
The ASA has made a submission to the Department of Industry, Science and Resources’ Proposals paper for introducing mandatory guardrails for AI in high-risk settings calling for mandatory guardrails to apply to all General Purpose AI models, transparency on inputs and mandatory licensing, labelling of AI-generated content, and respect for Indigenous Cultural and Intellectual Property. The proposals paper was published in September, following the Department’s consultation on the introduction of safe and responsible AI in Australia.
While we believe the introduction of mandatory guardrails will foster greater transparency and labelling of AI-generated content, they do not provide a mechanism for compensating creators for the infringement that has already occurred for the training of AI models like Chat GPT and Meta’s Llama. We will continue to work with industry and Government on a remuneration scheme for Australian creators.
The ASA welcomes the NSW Government’s support for a recommendation to advocate to the Federal Government for greater protection of the copyright and intellectual property of creative industry workers in light of the challenges presented by generative artificial intelligence. The recommendation came following a NSW Parliamentary Inquiry into AI, to which the ASA made a submission outlining the risks generative AI poses to the professional lives of creators and the social, cultural, and economic value of their creative labour.
The NSW Government has indicated its commitment to work with the Federal Government to ensure the rights of artists are protected with regards to the use of AI, and highlights the Attorney General’s Copyright and Artificial Intelligence Reference Group (CAIRG) as a standing mechanism to navigate these issues. The ASA is a member of the CAIRG Steering Committee and will continue to advocate for authors and illustrators to Government.
