Justice for Creators in the Age of Gen AI.
Spreading the word
With the figures from the two AOP surveys presenting an alarming picture, and other creative industries suffering likewise, it’s made sense for the response to be one that’s collective. “We shared the same objective with our creator-led organisations when deciding to work together to publish the joint report,” says AOP CEO Isabelle Doran. “This was to present a clear picture of the consequences of introducing generative-AI programs that directly compete with creators and performers across the creative industries.
“Anecdotally we’ve been aware of the increasing impact on photographers within the membership but also photographers, image-makers and those they work with to deliver commissions, for the past year. However, it’s only now that we’ve received the survey results from our respondents, and compared it to our survey conducted last year, that we can see the full extent of the impact Gen-AI is having on their livelihoods.
“The latest survey results and the new impact report both present an extremely worrying picture, given the added strain of working to increasingly squeezed budgets, and clients looking to save costs wherever they can. Our latest survey clearly crystallises the effect of Gen-AI on professional photographers’ livelihoods. Many are bluntly being told that they are pitching against AI for commissioned work, while others are seeing a significant drop in being commissioned and being told the client is using Gen-AI instead.
“Gen-AI can appear to be a quick fix. However, such short-term actions without understanding what Gen-AI is and, importantly, isn’t, means that these fast decisions might not deliver the expected return on investment, or can lead to customer dissatisfaction and affect a brand’s reputation. As a machine, Gen-AI cannot think: it’s merely a statistical pattern predicting program that can only regurgitate the heat and soul of photographers’ and other creators’ intellectual efforts.”
The AI picture is changing rapidly, and the fear is that legislation to bring in regulations to alleviate the effects already being felt so profoundly isn’t keeping up. So, has the UK government fully grasped the seriousness of the situation, and is the will there to stand up to powerful global AI corporations?
“The government says that it’s listening to the concerns of creators, and is not wanting to rush any decisions,” says Isabelle. “However, we have stated repeatedly that delaying decisions to underline the UK ‘gold standard’ copyright framework or to set out transparency obligations or to introduce a new right, such as a personality right, means that the illegal actions of certain overseas tech companies continues, without any motivation to seek consent or pay compensation.
“While the government is acknowledging there will be job losses, given there’s very little statistical analysis of the impact on creative freelancers, I don’t believe they have fully grasped the seriousness of what is evidently a value transfer of creative wealth away from those who invest in their livelihoods into the hands of overseas AI developers. The allure of big tech’s promises of investment and productivity gains masks the underlying picture that livelihoods and incomes are under significant pressure.”
