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A global federation of screenwriters' organizations and unions, including the Writers Guild of America East and West, has jointly promoted a “robust licensing mechanism” that would require explicit consent when using screenwriters' material to train AI tools. It was decided.
The European Writers' Federation and the International Federation of Writers' Guilds are expected to announce on Thursday that they have passed a joint resolution on the ethical use of AI. The resolution, in part, requires member organizations to ensure that “data sets for commercialized LLMs, or any current or future forms of AI, only include intellectual property that has been authorized for such use. The goal is to achieve this by 2024.
The resolution also calls for working to prevent all forms of AI from replacing writers and promotes transparency measures to notify writers when AI is being used for writing services such as polishing and rewriting. It requires each organization to do the same, and to insist that copyright rights be limited. It is intended to promote “fair compensation for the use of an author's intellectual property in LLM or other current or future forms of her AI.”
Collectively, these groups represent approximately 67,000 professional writers worldwide. The European Writers' Federation is made up of 26 organizations, including unions, guilds and associations dedicated to screenwriters from 21 European countries. The Writers Guild International counts 14 international writers guilds as members, including the WGA East and West, the Writers Guild of Great Britain, the Writers Guild of Canada, the Writers Guild of Korea, and the Radio and Television Association. Etocinema.
The resolution calls on these organizations to pursue AI goals through collective bargaining, lobbying, and “mandatory clauses in standard contracts.”
IAWG Chair and Irish screenwriter Jennifer Davidson (fair city), the AI ​​protections secured by WGA East and West during the 2023 Writers Strike serve as the group's starting point. “IAWG members seek to build on the hard-won protections that our American sister guilds, WGAE and WGAW, won during the strike. This means that IAWG will strengthen, not weaken, our writing process. It should be a tool that 'values ​​our work, otherwise it will replace us,' she said in a statement.
Meanwhile, FSE president and German screenwriter Carolyn Otto (Lena Lorenz) The European Union's AI law, expected to be enacted later this year, will address “unresolved issues regarding the misuse of intellectual property to train large-scale language models, as well as disputes regarding the authorship and copyright of machine-generated scripts.” He pointed out that it includes “certainty.” material. “Additionally, we intend to voice our concerns in both domestic and global policy areas and develop standard language that film and television screenwriters can request in their contracts.''
After punitive negotiations with top Hollywood studios and streamers and a 148-day strike, WGA East and West won trust, transparency and flexibility protections regarding AI in 2023. The contract did not prohibit the use of AI. Screenwriters can still use AI as a tool if their employers allow it, and studios can require writers to use it, but it's not required. However, the use of technology requires both parties to disclose their use of AI. Additionally, the union secured assurances that AI is not a writer, cannot write “literary works” and that the use of AI will not change the credit or remuneration of writers.