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EU policymakers reach agreement on the AI Act: GESAC welcomes the recognition of the need for transparency and compliance with EU rules by providers of general-purpose AI models

December 11, 2023
Copyright and AI

Brussels, 11 December 2023 – Following the EU decisionmakers’ announcement of having reached a political agreement on the EU AI Act at the end of a three-day trialogue meeting, GESAC welcomes the recognition on the need for providers of general-purpose AI models operating in the EU market to comply with EU copyright laws and minimum transparency obligations, which are indispensable for rightholders to exercise and enforce their rights.

The actual wording of the text resulting from the political agreement is to be finetuned at forthcoming technical meetings, and the new AI Office will be tasked with conducting further work to formulate practical arrangements for its implementation. We are encouraged by the broad understanding of these basic principles by all EU institutions and Member States at the final stage of the negotiations but call for caution and urge for robust implementation to translate this political commitment into a concrete obligation of result.

Véronique Desbrosses said: “ Transparency requirements and respect for EU copyright rules applicable to all models, preventing circumvention of EU’s protective measures are prerequisites for any AI regulation before it can be called responsible. A robust implementation allowing rightholders to properly exercise their rights under EU law is crucial to ensure that the principles agreed upon have a real impact in practice. Authors’ societies look forward to embracing this new market and generating value for creators and businesses alike, while contributing both to innovation and creation in Europe.”

Victor Finn, CEO of IMRO notes: “The conclusion of the trialogue negotiations is an essential first step in regulating AI platforms. The final text ensures that AI platforms must respect EU copyright rules regarding existing creative content used in their algorithms. If that is their preference, such use will need to be licensed by right-holders. This is a very positive outcome for the creative industries. Secondly, AI platforms must provide summaries of the works they have ingested, ensuring transparency of the training data they have used in their processes. We await the newly formed EU AI Office to take up the reins on this and look forward to the EU AI Act’s safe passage through parliament.”

About GESAC:
GESAC groups 32 European authors’ societies (CMOs) and represents as such more than one million authors from various artistic fields, including music, audiovisual, visual, literary, and dramatic arts, from across Europe.

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