Recently, a paper was published addressing copyright issues arising from the advancements made in the artificial intelligence field. The paper is researched and written by Christophe Geiger of Luiss Guido Carlo University, Rome, who is of the opinion that human rights must be the focus point when working out copyright laws regarding artificial intelligence. The paper starts by mentioning generative AI as the so called generative AI, the reason being that the writer wants a change in the approach to the process when analyzing copyright laws.
Prioritizing creativity in AI copyrights
The paper stresses the need to look at the matter at hand from a human rights perspective and that more weight should be given to the rights of human creators, and that human creativity must be the focal point when evaluating future regulations for generative AI and copyrights.
It argues for the protection of the human creators. As the author, Geiger is of the view that AI tools should be considered just as a helping tool for the human creator and not something to churn out copyrighted material in one form or another. Emphasizing that the copyrights for AI systems should be considered only when used as a technical tool by a human creator in the process of creation, not as a separate entity.
Greiger views current laws and legislation as more focused on protecting the financial investments made by business firms in developing AI models, as he finds them favorable for investors and their tech, not human artists and their creativity. He argues that artists and creators must be compensated for their works.
Ensuring fair compensation
The paper suggests that a proper compensation mechanism should be designed in order to facilitate human creators for their work used in AI model trainings and results produced based on their original works. Greiger insists that human rights are already included in regional constitutions and also in international laws, as they are considered the very basic parameters of human society, so legislatures should put them as first priority when deciding on new challenges that come with advancing technology and changing scenarios.
In respect to facilitating machine learning, processes can be designed and adopted from the right to science and culture and unfettered expressions (artistic), as AI is capable of beneficial advancements in the fields of science and the arts.
The paper also favors the rights of human creators in a way so that they can use the outputs generated by an AI system through their input to be used in the process of creating their art. Meanwhile, the paper’s argument leans towards the fact that human creators must be rewarded for the use of their works for commercial purposes according to the rights granted to them under copyright laws. Well, quite a valid argument it is.
The paper wraps up with the idea that a human right friendly approach ensures an ethical methodology for copyright concerns in GenAI in order for the procedures to support human creators and not machines.
Research paper available here.
