Over the past year, AI has become more prominent than ever imaginable. Not only do almost all companies use it religiously, but more and more children and teens are starting to utilize it in their day-to-day lives to help them with their schoolwork. Although artificial intelligence can be seen as an incredibly innovative and helpful tool to most, it can negatively impact individuals in many fields, such as actors, musicians, singers, songwriters, content creators and more.
In fact, Facebook’s Meta AI, which has been around since September 2023, has begun utilizing other people’s content, including video, audio and writing, to allow customers easier access to answers. However, many are beginning to view this as a way to cover up the fact that Facebook Meta AI is stealing content and, therefore, infringing on the livelihoods of those creators.
Another popular example of an AI company is Google’s AI Overview, which allows information to be received by the viewer more efficiently than ever before. When typing a question to Google, the individual will be presented with a bolded phrase stating, “AI Overview,” and a clear answer following this headline. Speculating copyright infringement, many people are beginning to realize that their rights to their work are being violated. Because of this, some are now writing letters protesting AI, claiming that such companies own individuals’ works without rights or a license.
A major recent example of a letter protesting AI companies was one that called for a warning about AI tools that can spit out synthetic images, music and writings after viewing human-made works. Björn Ulvaeus of ABBA, The Cure’s Robert Smith, and Thom Yorke, along with his Radiohead bandmates, all signed this letter protesting the unlicensed use of their songs.
Writers, including Nobel-winning novelist Kazuo Ishiguro and actors Julianne Moore, Kevin Bacon and Rosario Dawson, also signed. As more famous and influential people, such as Kevin Bacon, begin signing these protests against AI, more awareness will start to be raised about the issue.
One of the petition’s major remarks was, “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.” This sentiment indicates how many other creators are feeling at the moment. Not only is this a personal problem, but it could lead to the deterioration of creativity and transparency, eventually leading to a severe decrease in job availability.
