Brave New World? Report out now
The AOI co-launches ground-breaking report, calling on UK Government to put fairness at the heart of their approach to generative AI
The AOI, along with four leading creator-led organisations, have today launched a ground-breaking new report into the impact of unregulated generative AI on creators.
What is it?
The new report, Brave New World? Justice for creators in the age of GenAI, shows the devastating impact generative AI is having on creators’ jobs by using the evidence of more than 10,000 creators across music, writing, illustration, photography and performance. Without intervention from government, we are at risk of losing our creators who are the beating heart of our celebrated creative industries, worth £124.6 billion to the UK economy.
Brave New World? is published by a coalition of the Independent Society of Musicians (ISM), the Society of Authors (SoA), Equity, the Association of Illustrators (AOI), and the Association of Photographers (AOP), all members of the Creators’ Rights Alliance (CRA). Together, alongside creators, we made a stand at the heart of London’s tech hub, Granary Square, Kings Cross.
Read the full report.
The findings:
The figures in Brave New World? are stark; they show that creators are losing income and work and having their work stolen across every creative discipline. Some of the report’s key findings include:
* One in three creative jobs already lost to AI
* 99% of creators say their work has been scraped without consent
* 32% of illustrators report lost commissions or cancelled projects due to GenAI
The report shows that generative AI is causing a creatives jobs crisis and calls on government to set a global standard for ethical, human-centred AI.
The UK’s creative industries are one of our greatest strengths, powered by the skill and labour of creators. This report shows how unregulated generative AI is already harming that success, with work taken without permission, jobs lost, and creators pushed into competition with systems built on their own intellectual property. If the government is serious about supporting the creative industries, it must act now to protect creators’ rights and ensure human creativity remains central to our culture and economy.
Rachel Hill, CEO of the Association of Illustrators
Calling for a CLEAR Framework
The UK Government has taken a contentious approach to AI and copyright issues so far. Its AI Opportunities Action Plan favoured amending the UK’s gold standard copyright legislation to include a text and data mining exception that would allow AI companies to mine music and other creative works without permission or remuneration. The government received over 11,500 responses to their consultation; 95% of respondents supported licensing as the appropriate mechanism for the use of copyright protected works in AI training.
At the heart of the report is the CLEAR Framework for AI which calls on government to put fairness at the heart of their approach to generative AI. The CLEAR Framework is:
C – Consent first
L – Licensing, not scraping
E – Ethical use of training data
A – Accountability
R – Remuneration and Rights
The framework reflects what creators are asking for, not a rejection of technology, but clear rules that allow innovation to develop in a way that respects creative work. The creative industries are a significant employer in the UK, supporting approximately 2.4 million jobs, meanwhile the AI sector employs approximately just 86,000 people.
This report calls for justice — and that framing is crucial. There is no special pleading here, nor any blindness to the opportunities inherent in AI. What is being taken, in plain sight, is the private property of UK citizens, protected by UK law. It is not the government’s to give away. To do so is an injustice.
Baroness Kidron OBE, Member of the House of Lords
Illustrators, we call on you to:
Write to your MP
We call for all members and illustrators to ask their MP to stand up for creators and the creative industry. Our email tool takes less than 60 seconds to use our template or draft your own letter:
Email your MP today
Share on socials
The AOI will be posting on socials today and in the following weeks to come, so please share our messages or download the report graphics to create your own, using #JusticeForCreators.
Show the creative human behind the pencil or tablet pen!
Download Brave New World? Graphics
With thanks to:
The Independent Society of Musicians
The Association of Photographers
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