AOI campaigning in 2025
In a year where the issues surrounding generative AI taking illustrators’ work for training were forefront, AOI campaigned on a number of areas to ensure the viewpoint and experiences of illustrators was heard.
It’s been an involved year on the campaigning front, with AOI responding to Government consultation, meeting MPs with the support of illustrators, working with our campaigning partners, Creators’ Rights Alliance and British Copyright Council, and other organisations representing creators, such as the Association of Photographers and Society of Authors. Here are some of the main points we have campaigned on throughout 2025:
January
AOI responded to the UK Government’s December 2024 launched consultation on ‘Copyright and Artificial Intelligence’ in February (see below), and to encourage individual illustrators to respond to the consultation we published an article offering explanations and suggestions, helping to add the voice of individuals to the 11,500 responses the consultation eventually received.
Early in January we issued an AI survey to members and the wider community and published the UK Illustrators Draw the Line results in February. An overwhelming 91.62% support Option 1 of the Copyright and AI consultation – strengthening copyright protection – while just 3.59% back the government’s preferred Option 3 which would give an exception to copyright for scraping content from the internet.
February
We responded to the ‘Copyright and Artificial Intelligence’ in February to make the illustrator’s view clear to Government. The consultation proposed an exception to copyright that would allow commercial use of text and data mining – the ‘scraping’ of your work from the internet to train generative AI by AI developers – for no payment. We strongly opposed the proposed opt-out (rights reservation) system with default opt-in provisions. Although the AI developers are claiming otherwise, the current legal framework in the UK is unambiguous: consent must be obtained from creators before copyrighted work is used to train generative AI, typically through licensing arrangements.
We noted the consultation fails to address the past illegal use of creative works by AI developers, and emphasised the environmental concerns about AI servers’ substantial energy and water consumption. Our submission was boosted by the contributions of thousands of illustrators who completed our AI survey in January.
At the point of the Consultation deadline AOI took part in the Make It Fair campaign from the Creative Rights in AI Coalition, a body including a large number of creator organisations and businesses (including AOI), campaigning against the government’s proposed copyright exception for scraping. The campaign invited the government and the tech sector to partner with the creative industries in shaping a future that prioritises, safeguards, and enhances the role of human creativity in AI.
March
The Data (Use and Access) Bill – AOI wrote to the Committee to express support for the Baroness Kidron amendments to the Data (Use and Access) Bill (see May), stating that illustrators face an unprecedented threat as generative AI platforms are directly competing with them by using their original works for training without permission or compensation. We pointed out that our 2025 AI survey aimed at illustrators reveals that 32.40% of illustrators have already lost commissions to AI alternatives, with affected artists losing an average of £9,262 each—a trend that threatens both individual livelihoods and UK’s position as a global creative leader. See the AOI AI survey
April
The ‘Rebooting Copyright’ report was published in April by the Tony Blair Insitiute, and was roundly denounced by the creative sector. AOI joined many other organisations in calling out the report’s approach to copyright and the effect handing over the rights in work posted online for training generative AI would have on the creative sector.
The report echoed familiar arguments from AI developers, especially claiming that there is a ‘lack of clarity’ for tech companies regarding copyright laws and content scraping. This position is misleading – the law is very clear: creative works should not be copied without permission from their creators.
September
The release of the Creative Industries Sector Plan, as part of the UK’s Industrial Strategy, was considered a welcome development for our sector. The introduction of a Freelance Champion was a positive step, showing some awareness of the day-to-day realities faced by the majority of creative workers. The Creators’ Rights Alliance, which AOI is a Board member of, drew attention to the plan’s limited scope, saying there was a narrow focus on growth in creative tech, and not enough detail on support for less high-profile disciplines.
May
In May Meta announced in a statement that they will be using all public content from EU Facebook and Instagram for training their AI. We alerted illustrators to a Meta AI training opt out for Facebook and Instagram.
The Data (Use and Access) Bill – A major focus of campaigning on this Bill was the tabled amendments from film maker Baroness Kidron to the Data Bill on the essential requirement of Transparency from AI developers on how they access creative works and use them for training generative AI. Supported by AOI, the Creators’ Rights Alliance urged Ministers to adopt this proportionate proposal on transparency when the Bill returned to the House of Commons. However, the amendments were not adopted.
October
Public Lending Rights – these are payments to writers, illustrators and translators for library loans as compensation for possible loss of sales. AOI responded to the changes in the loan rate, noting that the proposed 0.64 pence increase is mainly due to a fall in the number of loans of registered books over the past year, rather than new investment in the PLR fund https://theaoi.com/news/public-lending-rights-2025
Visual Arts statement – The AOI alongside a coalition of organisations representing over 100,000 visual artists, photographers, and image libraries – AOP, DACS and PICSEL – spoke out in a statement against the widespread, unauthorised use of copyright protected visual works in AI training, calling for transparency, fairness and respect for creators’ rights in the age of AI. Calling for retrospective settlements for past unauthorised use, transparent disclosure of training datasets and fair licensing agreements.
November
Government issued a proposal for the setting up of an AI Growth Lab that would allow companies to test AI under defined conditions. They said ‘The AI Growth Lab would support growth and responsible AI innovation by making targeted regulatory modifications under robust safeguards and with careful monitoring’. AOI will be responding to this proposal.
The Anthropic AI case – We directed book creators whose works may have been taken and used for training by generative AI company, Anthropic, to an online searchable works list which reveals a large number of digital books taken from an illegal site to train Anthropic’s AI models. A compensation scheme has been set up for creators whose works are on the list.
All this work has been done with the support of the AOI’s membership. Thank you for helping us support the illustration industry.
Back to News Page