11 Jul The Graphic Artists Guild Endorses California Bill AB-412, “Copyrighted Materials Used for Artificial Intelligence Training”
The Graphic Artists Guild has endorsed the California bill AB-412, introduced by Assemblymember Rebecca Bauer-Kahan. The legislation seeks to increase transparency around the use of copyrighted materials to train generative artificial intelligence (GenAI). It requires model developers to provide copyright owners a means by which they could be informed on whether and how their copyrighted works were used for training. The bill also authorizes copyright holders to bring a civil action against developers who fail to respond to a duly submitted request.
In our letter to CA Senate Judiciary Chair, the Guild wrote: “… GenAI is replacing graphic artists in the marketplace, and is doing so by utilizing their artwork – without permission or compensation – for the machine learning required for GenAI image generators to function. Graphic artists need to know when their copyrighted artwork has been utilized for machine learning. Passing this legislation will be groundbreaking and essential for providing artists the information they need to pursue credit and compensation for the use of their copyrighted works.”
AB-412 would require the GenAI platforms to develop an online process whereby copyright holders could submit a request for information on training. Developers are required to respond to those requests within 30 days with a list of the copyrighted works which have been assessed to be included in the training data. In response to concerns that the legislation would harm GenAI startups, creating a monopoly of GenAI giants, the legislation exempts certain developers: models which make training data publicly available; are non-commercial academic or government research; do not use works which have been registered, preregistered, or indexed with the United States Copyright Office; or use works to which they own the rights.
The bill was co-sponsored by Concept Art Association and the National Association of Voice actors, and is supported by a number of organizations, including the Authors Guild, National Writers Union, Music Artists Coalition, Romance Writers of America, Songwriters of North America, Transparency Coalition, SAG-AFTRA, and Writers Guild West.
Acting Advocacy Liaison Co-chair Rachel Sheeran states, “This bill is would a tremendous first step in creating transparency for graphic artists around the use of their works for GenAI training, where previously there has been none. We support anything that will help move the needle forward on behalf of creators. We hope this will inspire many other states to follow suit.”