Winter
Volume 3
Creative Rights (and Wrongs)
We are in a time of great visions and grand promises. Of prophesying tech leaders, proclaiming futures of abundance. Lobbying, always lobbying.
Amidst the clamour and rush of governments signing deals, the creative industry in the UK is fighting to get its voice heard. Often in spaces where doors (and ears) don’t easily open.
Amongst these are four female CEOs from leading trade organisations representing authors, musicians, illustrators and photographers, who have come together to contest Big Tech’s big narrative. Showing political leaders the reality facing their members and the country’s £125b creative industry.
"Of course, a lot of the time, you’re not going to know about the job that you missed out on. But for those that have got confirmation, on average, they have lost about £9,000 already, which is a huge proportion of an illustrators income."
Rachel Hill | Association of Illustrators
"Our members have been so significantly affected by what’s happening and it’s not just our members images, it’s everybody’s work has been scraped online, to feed these massive datasets, that are then used for AI training purposes."
Isabelle Doran | Association of Photographers
"Copyright is the way that creators monetise their work. If creators can’t monetise their work, they can’t earn a living income, they can’t pay the bills."
Anna Ganley | Society of Authors
"We know that tech companies are scraping creators work, which they basically steal without permission or payment, and then wrap it up into something else, which they then exploit for payment."
Deborah Annetts | ISM
To mark the publication of "Brave New World - Justice for Creators in the Age of Gen AI", a joint report by 5 of the UK's leading creative trade bodies, the four CEOs sat down for a round table discussion to talk about their findings and the impact that Generative AI is having on their members livelihoods.
You can find "Brave New World" here.