A group of organisations representing creators, including artists and songwriters, has called on European lawmakers to "put transparency back at the heart of the European Union's AI Act". The call comes amid fears that the new AI regulations in Europe could be watered down during the final phase of negotiations.
"As the AI Act is entering into the final round of negotiations, we urge all policymakers to prioritise maximum transparency on training data and artificially generated content", they state.
The EU’s AI Act is not specifically focused on generative AI, ie the AI models that generate original content. However, it contains various transparency obligations for AI companies, and the music and wider copyright industries want more transparency about what content is being used to train generative AI models, as well as clear labelling of AI-generated works.
The act is currently in the 'trilogue phase', where the European Commission, European Parliament and EU Council all seek to agree on a final version of the legislation. It's known that tech companies and some EU governments are seeking to get the current draft of the act revised to reduce some of the obligations contained in it. But the European Parliament and current Spanish presidency of the EU are keen to ensure practical transparency obligations remain.
"We strongly feel", the creator groups continue in their statement, "that the datasets used by generative AI should be informed by the highest level of transparency. The AI Act should also impose strict visible and/or audible labelling obligations to all deployers of generative AI-powered technologies, warning the public about the fact that what they are watching, listening to or reading has been altered or generated by AI".
One of the music groups to sign the statement is the European Composer & Songwriter Alliance. Its President, Helienne Lindvall, tells CMU: “It is crucial that the works of authors and artists are not used for training data without their knowledge and consent”.
“This means that we need mandatory transparency requirements, without broad exception loopholes”, she adds. “Without a balanced AI Act that guarantees those fundamental rights, the livelihoods of all creators are in jeopardy. With no solid human-centric approach to creation, AI would simply lose its purpose - which should be to aid the progress of society”.
Although this statement was signed by groups representing individual creators, the music industry is pretty aligned on this, with record labels and music publishers in agreement with artists and songwriters regarding the transparency obligations of AI companies.
Confirming that, Helen Smith, Executive Chair of pan-European indie label trade group IMPALA, says: "The EU should not miss the opportunity provided by the AI Act to ensure that generative AI models have meaningful transparency and record-keeping obligations".
"Our members and the artists they work with are excited about the possibilities offered by AI as a tool to create, produce, distribute and promote music, as well as other collaborative opportunities with AI models to license our works", she goes on.
But to capitalise on those opportunities, she adds, generative AI companies "should be subject to transparency and record-keeping obligations, as proposed by the European Parliament and supported by the Spanish presidency of the EU. This is a vital part of the jigsaw around negotiating the licences and authorisations foundational models need to operate"