"It's serious"

Creatives see their existence threatened by AI

This image was also generated by an AI.

(Bild: jambulart - stock.adobe.com)

"Content glut", threat to jobs, copyright infringements - these are just some of the risks of generative artificial intelligence for art, culture and the creative industries. At the invitation of the Copyright Initiative, experts from the respective industries therefore spoke out in favor of AI regulations on Thursday.

Creativity was the last bastion of man, or so it was thought. Now artificial intelligence can paint, write poetry and compose without clear copyright rules emerging. "It's serious," said Gerhard Ruiss from IG Autorinnen Autoren, opening his press conference on Thursday on proposed legislation regarding AI rules for artistic works and performances. "Now at the latest, as AI is preparing to put everything through the sausage machine, we need laws". 

Politics will probably only wake up, Ruiss said, "when AI intervenes in politics, and it does". The Vienna FPÖ, for example, had used the subject of the well-known children's book "Räuber Hotzenplotz" for a campaign. The publisher of the children's book had filed a lawsuit against the use and, according to media reports, the Supreme Court has now ruled in its favor.

Now the Blue Party wants to create a new version of "Räuber Rathausplatz" - using artificial intelligence. "That describes the problem perfectly," emphasized Ruiss. Nevertheless, "awareness of the problem has not yet arrived in the current election manifestos of the respective parties."

"Extremely threatening to our existence"
"It's five past twelve," Kristina Sprenger also warned. The situation is "extremely life-threatening". Actors and actresses are defined by their voice and appearance, and both of these things are in danger from artificial intelligence because both can be reproduced.

The Austrian actress recalled the months-long battle between the actors' and writers' unions in Hollywood. A major point of contention at the time was the issue of artificial intelligence. "You get the feeling that we don't take it so seriously in Austria with our operetta-like coziness," said the artist. But the reality has long since arrived here.

"What about copyright?"
Just think of the videos that show well-known presenters such as Armin Assinger supposedly advertising investments and the like. A short description is all it takes for an AI image program to deliver a picture that could have been taken by Egon Schiele. In music, anyone can resurrect any dead artist.

"You can sing a song to software and it will sound like Elvis Presley," said musician Peter Paul Skrepek: "Now the question arises: what about copyright? Who owns it? That is completely open."

Proposed solutions
For this reason, the initiative presented solutions that are still being developed. These include points such as transparency and disclosure obligations, a direct remuneration claim for the creation and exploitation of AI systems, no copyrights and ancillary copyrights for non-creative AI products and protection against AI-generated likenesses.

The concrete draft laws should be ready for decision soon and will be presented at the second conference on November 14. After that, the ball is in the politicians' court. "It has to happen in the next legislative period," says Ruiss.