Culture withdraws its decree to regulate AI in the absence of consensus and open a dialogue with the creators | Culture

The Ministry of Culture has decided to remove the processing of the Royal Decree of Licensing for generative artificial intelligence (AI) and open a process of dialogue with the cultural sector to guarantee the protection of the rights of creators both nationally and European. The project, which sought to introduce collective copyright licenses for the development of artificial intelligence models for general use, had unleashed criticism from artists, writers and other culture professionals, as well as their respective organizations and Unions Although the Ministry argued that this regulation would allow to balance the use of protected works with fair compensation to its creators, much of the sector warned that, in practice, it could facilitate that large technological companies retroactively regularize the massive and indiscriminate use of works No previous permission or compensation.

In a statement, the Ministry explains that the text was submitted to public consultation, a process that ended on December 10. After analyzing the contributions received and verifying the lack of consensus, the Government has chosen to stop the processing of the decree. Instead, a process of dialogue with the organizations of the cultural sector will begin to find a model that addresses the challenges posed by generative AI without violating the rights of creators.

A debate about AI and intellectual property

The generative artificial intelligence, which nurtures an immense amount of works to produce new content, has generated great rejection in the artistic community. For months, various creators have expressed concern about what they consider an improper appropriation of their work without authorization or compensation. While the SGAE shares the content of the Royal Decree and supports measures that protect the copyright, other groups, such as the Federation of Trade Unions of Shows, Graphic Arts, Audiovisual and Paper attached to CGT, reject any type of license, considering the AI a unfair competition that even more precarious your work.

In addition, on December 18, under the slogan “NO”, entities such as the Audiovisual Alliance (AA), the Association of Stage Directors of Spain (ADE), the Autonomous Section of Book Translators (ACE) and the Federation of associations of illustrators of Spain (Fadip) warned that the proposal would allow companies to use the expanded collective licenses to legitimize the unauthorized use of artistic and literary works.

Apart from stopping the decree, the groups demanded the most forceful measures, such as the withdrawal of the illegal models of existing AI and the recognition of economic compensation for the past illicit uses.

The Royal Decree project was inspired by the 2019/790 European Directive, which allows member states to establish expanded collective licenses for the exploitation of works for specific purposes. Countries like France have already adopted similar measures, and the Ministry of Culture argued that this route was the best solution to the practical impossibility of technology companies obtaining individual authorization from each creator.

However, the most critical artists with the proposal consider that this position is based on an erroneous approach: instead of accepting that the AI ​​uses their works under certain conditions, they believe that the government should start from a firmer opposition, such as when it committed not to reward or hire creations generated entirely with artificial intelligence.

Urtasun said in October that “the sustainability of culture is at stake,” referring to the impact that the technological sector and artificial intelligence are having on the cultural legacy. To protect him, he defended the need for this regulation. At the moment, after the controversy, with the withdrawal of the decree, the Ministry keeps the door open to new proposals that can reach a greater consensus within the artistic sector.