‘It’s theft, pure and simple’: Hundreds of artists have had enough, saying AI is stealing their works without compensation

• Hundreds of artists have launched a campaign against AI
• They say AI is stealing their work and want licensing deals instead
• Signatories include Scarlett Johansson, Cyndi Lauper and many others.

Among the many controversies surrounding the use of artificial intelligence (AI), how it trains its algorithms on artistic works without compensation is among the most controversial. This dispute has now given rise to a campaign by actors, musicians, writers and others to fight the “theft” of their works by AI.

Dubbed “Stealing Is Not Innovation,” the campaign website states that “some of the biggest tech companies…are using the work of American creators to build AI platforms without permission or compliance with copyright law.” The site continues: “This is not progress. This is theft – plain and simple.”

Below the opening statements is a list of signatories containing hundreds of famous names, including singer Cyndi Lauper, rapper Common, actors Scarlett Johansson and Joseph Gordon Levitt, and many more.

Instead of training AI algorithms on artists’ work without compensation, the signatories say “there is a better way.” This would happen through “licensing agreements and partnerships,” they say, that would provide AI companies with a “responsible and ethical pathway to obtain the content and materials they want to use.”

A major source of dispute

How AI companies trained their tools for artistic content has remained a source of controversy for years, with several organizations taking action over allegations that their works were stolen and ingested by AIs without compensating the original creators. Now it seems many people have had enough.

Interestingly, the signatories’ wish is not for AI companies to completely stop using their work for training purposes. Rather, it’s about creating an arrangement that allows OpenAI, Google and others to continue to use artistic works for their large language models, on a licensing basis where creators are presumably paid for their content.

This isn’t the first time artists have claimed AI is taking their work without permission. A lawsuit filed in 2023 alleged that AI companies were violating copyright laws by training their products on created works, for example. Still, with big tech companies seemingly acting with impunity when it comes to copyrighted works, it will be interesting to see if the latest campaign has any effect.

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Alex Blake has been messing around with computers since the early 1990s, and since then he’s learned a thing or two about technology. But no more than two things. That’s all his brain can hold. In addition to TechRadar, Alex writes for iMore, Digital Trends, and Creative Bloq, among others. He was previously editor-in-chief of MacFormat magazine. This means that it mainly covers the world of Apple and its latest products, but also Windows, computer peripherals, mobile applications and much more. When he’s not writing, you can find him roaming the English countryside and gaming on his PC.