As the year comes to a close, we’re spotlighting Creative Commons’ public policy work, recapping what we’ve done and looking ahead to the new year. In this edition, we turn to our work on artificial intelligence (AI).

Recently, you might have seen the news headline “Art Made With Artificial Intelligence Wins at State Fair,” or even played with one of many tools that enable people to generate content through artificial intelligence. These are just some of the ways AI is becoming increasingly connected with our daily lives. AI is a broad, evolving concept that relates to a number of technologies (such as machine learning and neural networks) that enable computers to analyze and make assessments about data on a scale that was never possible before.

At Creative Commons, we’ve focused on how the development of AI intersects with the commons. Generating content with AI is particularly relevant to CC’s mission, our better sharing strategy, and our participation in the Movement for a Better Internet. AI systems are often trained by analyzing copyrighted works — for instance, the coronavirus was detected in its early stages via large-scale analysis of news articles, and similar sorts of analysis are key to vaccine research. What’s more, AI is used in systems people use to find, access and share information — consider, for example, the recommendation systems used to find information across social media. Across all the complexity of new AI systems and their uses, we’re guided by two questions: How does the proliferation of AI connect to better sharing: sharing that is inclusive, just and equitable — where everyone has wide opportunity to access content, to contribute their own creativity, and to receive recognition and rewards for their contributions? And how does the proliferation of AI connect to a better internet: a public interest vision for an internet that benefits us all?

CC’s Approach to AI & Public Policy

Creative Commons’ advocacy on AI centers around our core beliefs about building the commons and around addressing copyright barriers to better sharing.

To take a holistic approach to supporting better sharing, we have also expanded the focus of our advocacy to consider other key issues.

• The capacity to develop and use AI to support better sharing should be widely distributed, rather than concentrated among a narrow few: Better sharing depends on a dynamic environment, where people are not locked into a narrow set of services for sharing knowledge and creativity. While it is crucial to ensure commercial viability and incentives for investment in helpful services, it is also crucial to ensure that developments in AI do not come at the expense of robust competition, consumer protection, and the public interest more broadly.
• The risks of AI should be addressed through tailored means, without wide-sweeping, generic restrictions on general purpose technology and sharing: AI does not always generate unqualified good or harm. Harmful uses are best addressed through a contextual approach, based on clear principles that can adapt to new developments in how AI is designed and implemented for different use cases based on their risks to society. Such a tailored approach can and should avoid overly broad restrictions on general purpose technology, in particular the sharing and use of open source tools.
• Online platforms’ management of content sharing should be coupled with transparency and accountability measures: Large social media and user-generated content platforms use automated tools, increasingly driven by AI, in order to manage the vast scale of information produced and shared on their services. CC has long opposed mandatory, automated filtering for copyright infringement, because of the ways filtering can negatively impact free speech, as well as the sharing of culture and knowledge. When it comes to voluntary measures taken to manage content on sharing platforms, we believe it is important, at a minimum, to ensure people are well-informed about platforms’ practices, and to hold platforms accountable to their promises.

CC’s Engagement on AI & Public Policy in 2022

What’s Next

Next year, we plan to build on this work in a number of ways. First, as AI tools for generating content have become more widely available, there are more and more questions about how copyright should apply. We will continue to engage in this debate to support better sharing. Second, as the EU’s institutions negotiate the final text of the AI Act, we will continue to actively engage and comment on the draft texts. We’ll also engage in similar debates in the UK, at the World Intellectual Property Organization, and elsewhere as opportunities arise.

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This content was originally published here.