Forty-two German associations and trade unions, representing more than 140,000 authors and performers, on Wednesday wrote a letter to the European Commission, European Council and EU lawmakers, raising serious concerns about the use of generative artificial intelligence (AI), such as ChatGPT. They requested for tougher regulations to protect their copyright as ChatGPT has the capacity to generate text and images from prompts.
The letter argued that without additional regulations, the usage of protected training material, its non-transparent processing, and the foreseeable substitution of the sources by the output of generative AI would cause irreversible harm. It further mentioned that the generative AI needs to be at the core of any meaningful AI market regulation and the providers should be held accountable for any content generated and circulated by AI, including infringement of personal rights and copyrights, misinformation or discrimination.
The European Commission had proposed AI regulations last year, which is yet to be finalized by members of European Parliament. The forty-two German associations have proposed that the rules should be restructured to regulate the generative AI across the entire product cycle and they do not wish the providers of such technologies, such as Microsoft, Alphabet’s Google, Amazon, and Meta Platforms should not be allowed to act as central platform services distributing digital content.
The mentioned companies have remained silent so far on the proposed regulations, however they have been at the forefront of producing the AI technology. Microsoft is one of the leaders in producing and introducing AI technology to the world, with its Azure cloud computing services, allowing customers to create custom AI models and showcase them as solutions. Alphabet’s Google has developed and invested in a wide range of AI products, from education, to healthcare. Amazon and Meta Platforms are two of the leading cloud providers for AI models and computing power.
The regulation for the use of AI is yet to be finalized, and all the mentioned companies remain a prominent player in the industry, despite all the objections. As society is becoming more reliant on AI, organizations are still struggling to understand the implications of the technology, and how it will disrupt the current industrial and economic models.
