William Boyd, Annie Ernaux, Deborah Levy, Luc Dardenne & Fernando Trueba Join 200 Creatives To Sound Alarm Over AI Becoming An “Alternative For Human Creation”

Melanie Goodfellow
·4 min read
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A group of 200 internationally renowned writers, publishers, directors and producers have signed an open letter sounding the alarm over the implications of AI for human creativity.

“Several generative models of language and images have recently appeared in the public and private domains; they are developing at breakneck speed, accessible to all for any task which involves writing and creating,” read the letter, published online on Tuesday.

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“These models are shaping a world where, little by little, creation can do without human beings, thereby hastening the automation of many creative and intellectual professions formerly deemed inaccessible to mechanization.”

The letter, initiated by European translation professionals under the banner of “Collective For Human Translation – In Flesh And Blood”, comes amid growing concern about the impact of generative AI technology on professionals working in the creative industries.

Signatories from the literary world included Nobel Prize-winning author Annie Ernaux (Happening) as well as best-selling writers William Boyd (Restless), Deborah Levy (Hot Milk), Indriðason Arnaldur (Operation Napoleon), Michel Bussi (The Double Mother), Eleanor Catton (The Luminaries), Jonathan Coe (Middle England), Férey Caryl (Zulu), Sara Mesa (Un Amor) and Jodi Picoult (Wish You Were Here).

Cinema professionals getting behind the initiative included writer/screenwriters Gilles Marchand (The Night Of The 12th) and NDiaye Marie (Saint Omer), playwright and director Alexis Michalik (Edmond) and filmmakers Luc Dardenne (Tori And Lokita), Fernando Trueba (Chico & Rita), Alessandro Comodin (Summer Of Giacomo), Dominik Moll (The Night Of The 12th) and Palme d’Or winner Cristian Mungiu (Beyond The Hills).

The letter suggested use of generative AI tools would have a detrimental effect on culture and diversity in the long run.

“The use of these programmes harms culture in general by standardizing it while spreading biases, often racist and sexist, introduced by AI training processes which amplify voices and languages that are already dominant online, at the expense of those that are less favoured by data processing,” it read.

It also emphasized the negative ecological and human costs of the data processing required “to train” the AI tools.

“The data processing remains dependent on an enormous amount of human labour that is invisibilized, often carried out in conditions that are appalling, underpaid, dehumanizing, even traumatizing (when content moderation is involved),” read the letter.

“The storage of the necessary data for the functioning and training of algorithms produces a disastrous ecological footprint in terms of carbon balance and energy consumption.”

The signatories called on subtitling, dubbing and voice-overs companies, film and audio-visual production and distribution companies, video game studios, and media outlets to refrain from using AI programs to translate their content.

They also demanded that publishers and broadcasters be obliged to indicate when AI had used be used in the production chain, and that public money should not be invested in works entirely or partially created by AI.

There has been an uptick in lobbying around AI in Europe in recent weeks, as the European Union pushes through final negotiations on its new Artificial Intelligence Act, with the aim of finalizing its passage by the end of the year.

A group of 70 bodies representing professionals working in the French cultural and creative sectors published an editorial in Le Monde newspaper on Friday calling for greater transparency around the declaration of the works and content that are used to train AI tools.

The bodies called on the French government to support their calls for stronger rules around transparency and copyright within the EU’s new AI law. They said proposed rules endorsed by the European Parliament last May as part of the law’s passage did not go far enough.

“It needs to be reinforced. We would like the principle of total transparency to be imposed in order to avoid data laundering and ensure fair remuneration for rights holders,” read the letter.

The bodies suggested that developers of AI systems should be obliged by law to provide a detailed list of the creative works and sources used to train their tools, which should be made freely available to rights holders.

“This is not about creating new intellectual property rules but rather implementing existing ones,” continued the letter.

The group said it was essential that rights holders had a legal framework through which they could combat the illegal use of their material and failure to comply with authors opting out of their content being used, as well as secure fair remuneration for value generated when original works are fed into an AI tool.

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