25K+ Artists Decry “Unlicensed Use of Creative Works” to Train AI

Over 25,000 artists and cultural workers and counting have signed a new petition with a simple, one-line message: “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.”

The brief statement was authored by music composer and former Stability AI executive Ed Newton-Rex, who resigned last year because he disagreed with the company’s use of copyrighted creative work for free under “fair use” to train its AI. 

Artists including painters Amoako Boafo, Cecilia Vicuña, Joanne Greenbaum, and Joanna Pousette-Dart; photographer Lynn Goldsmith; and illustrator Anni Matsick are among the signatories, alongside ABBA’s Björn Ulvaeus, actor Kevin Bacon, and Radiohead’s Thom Yorke. Newton-Rex first published the petition on X on Tuesday, October 22, with 10,000 signatures. Anyone can sign the statement. 

Newton-Rex said the petition was published now because “it is a critical time for creators” to protect their work.

“Lots of AI companies are building their products by ingesting the life’s work of writers, musicians, artists, actors, photographers, and other creatives, without payment and without permission,” Newton-Rex told Hyperallergic in a statement.

Earlier this year, a California judge ruled that a group of artists’ class-action lawsuit against Stability AI, Midjourney, and Deviant AI could continue despite attempts by the companies to halt them. Other artists are using the courts to advocate for copyright protections on AI-generated art.

President of the Association of Photographers in the United Kingdom Tim Flach, known for his wildlife and animal photography including his series Dog Gods, told Hyperallergic that he has experienced “first hand” the impersonations of his photographic style. Flach said he is also a plaintiff in a class-action complaint against several AI companies. 

Flach said in a statement to Hyperallergic that the “uninvited exploitation” brought about by training AI models on copyrighted works “represents an economic loss for artists, undermining our livelihoods and threatening our very existence.” 

“We urgently need policymakers to support our concerns, and tech companies, undertaking this vast and widespread commercial exploitation, to seek permission and pay compensation,” Flach said. 

While the sentence-long message is mostly signed by members of creative fields including musicians, writers, and visual artists, a number of academics have also endorsed it, among them Oxford Associate Professor of Ancient History Gregory Kantor. 

Kantor said in a statement to Hyperallergic that AI models “made on the cheap” raise barriers to entry level for a future generation of scholars and artists. 

“AI is not going to write a history monograph like an Oxford professor or paint like Picasso,” Kantor said. “However, for top artists and scholars of the next generation to emerge, they need to go through years of doing routine work and training on the job. An economic regime that excludes humans from starting level jobs in arts or academia will inevitably mean that there will be no next generation.”

The statement comes as the UK invests over a billion dollars into AI projects. Kantor said he finds it bizarre for the UK “to effectively subsidize the California tech industry at the cost of fields in which this country retains international significance.”

Newton-Rex said his massively popular one-sentence petition wasn’t directed at anyone in particular, but is rather an expression of what “creatives think about this issue.”

“And what they think is very clear,” Newton-Rex said.