Charter of Ethical AI Use in the Creative Industries
International authors’ organisations and other creative industry bodies have joined forces to create an international charter setting out commitments for the responsible and ethical use of generative AI services.
With governments across the globe still not committing to AI regulation and oversight, this Charter aims to define how generative AI services should be deployed to help protect and support human creators. It won’t solve the largescale societal threats that unregulated generative AI poses, but it makes a small but significant step towards mitigating some of the risks and supporting responsible practice.
By signing up to this Charter, industry organisations such as agents, publishers, producers, prize bodies, and trade associations can pledge to use generative AI services in a responsible, ethical and sustainable way, balancing the technological benefits with the potentially devastating impact on people and planet.
If you are the decisionmaker for your organisation, please show your support for human creativity by adding your organisation.
Definition
When we talk about Generative AI (Gen AI) we mean the subset of AI technology which is designed to create new content — text, images, audio, video, or code — based on patterns learned from huge datasets of information.
The transformer-based models such as ChatGPT, Claude, Copilot, DALL·E, Firefly Gemini, Midjourney, Suno etc. generate outputs that resemble human-created work because they have been trained on human work. Gen AI is different from traditional AI, which focuses on analysis and prediction.
Our pledge
Building on UNESCO’s 10 core principles of responsible AI – the world’s first global ethical framework – we the undersigned pledge to support a human rights-centred approach to responsible generative AI use in the creative industries.
By offering ethical standards and a voluntary code for generative AI use, we in no way dismiss or disagree with serious concerns arising from its creation or application, including but not limited to the largescale use of creative work without transparency, permission or payment; the ongoing risk of displacement of creators’ work; the dilution of the market; and the environmental impacts.
Truly ethical generative AI technology depends on correcting and regulating these issues. Until then, we hope these guidelines will help to reduce the risks and support responsible practice.
By signing up to this Charter your organisation commits to:
Promote responsible and ethical use of generative AI services: balancing the technological benefits with the environmental, social, societal, economic, democratic and ethical impacts for humans and the planet.
Comply with the evolving best practice recommendations on AI ethics and governance: with respect to UNESCO’s 10 core principles of responsible AI and also the CLEAR framework (outlined in the Brave New World report) which has been adapted for use with this Charter.
Where AI is used, it is used for good: to widen access, inclusion and opportunity and to increase discoverability, helping more creators, from more backgrounds, reach wider audiences, and help to make creative work more accessible to all.
Work mindfully in relation to impact: on human jobs, livelihoods and the environment, investing in people’s skills so that they can share in the benefits.
This Charter aims to guide signatories in the responsible consideration of generative AI technologies in their organisations, and to encourage the ethical adoption of generative AI services where the use serves a clear purpose and the risks have been assessed. It sets out the commitments that organisations can make when procuring, developing and deploying generative AI services in their professional activities.
Generative AI technology comes with significant environmental and infrastructure costs. Neither of these should ever be a reason not to pay creators fairly for their work.
Practical implementation
While values and principles are crucial to establishing a solid foundation for any ethical AI framework, we need to move from high level principles and to embed practical strategies. As signatory to this Charter of Ethical AI Use, we commit to taking practical steps towards the responsible implementation of generative AI services.
Where generative AI services are used, we will prioritise ethical and sustainable uses that enhance and support human creativity rather than erode and displace it. We will keep in mind that most current commercially available large language models (upon which other AI services are built) have been developed and fine-tuned by using the world’s copyright materials, without transparency, permission or payment. Where viable alternatives exist, we will favour services from developers who license their training data and are transparent about this.
We will:
Educate and train our workforce
We will train ourselves and our workforce to better understand what generative AI technology is, and how it can be used responsibly, safely and sustainably.
Risk-assess use cases
We will review any potential generative AI use cases and conduct risk assessments, proportionate to the risk, covering IP, data protection, the impact on creators, and our diversity and sustainability policies. These will be reviewed and updated periodically.
Create and update our permitted use policy
We will implement an ethical AI Permitted Use and Disclosure Policy following the CLEAR principles of consent and attribution, licensing, ethical use, and accountability with respect to IP rights and fair remuneration.
Make the policy available
Our policy will be available on our website to ensure that everyone we work with is clear when and where generative AI processes are and are not used. We will share our approach on our website and publish a clear summary of how we use generative AI.
Use consent-based systems
We will seek consent before using a creator’s work to train a generative AI model, or to create a new work from it. We will share our approach to other AI-assisted workflows on our website and update as our practice evolves. We will not use existing or commissioned work in generative AI systems without permission of the rightsholder. To maintain trust, we expect creators to inform us when generative AI has materially shaped their work.
Expect mutual transparency
We will be transparent about where AI-generated content forms a material part of a published work, or of material presented to creators or their audiences. We ask creators, likewise, to tell us when generative AI has materially contributed to or forms a significant element of their work.
We declare that we have read and will adhere to this Charter of Ethical AI Use in the Creative Industries
Signatories
Keep It CLEAR Framework
This Charter adapts the CLEAR framework from the report: Brave New World? Justice for creators in the age of GenAI, a major study of Gen AI’s impact on creative work. The report was published by the Society of Authors, the Independent Society of Musicians, Equity, the Association of Illustrators, and the Association of Photographers, which we, the undersigned, advocate for as best practice principles for the ethical use of generative AI in the Creative Industries.
Most existing large language models have been trained on copyright-protected materials without transparency, consent, accreditation or compensation, in ways rightsholders believe are unlawful and are challenging in the courts. Copyright underpins the creative industries and creative rights must be protected in this age of Gen AI. This means that when considering the development and deployment of generative AI technologies, it is essential to consider the following practical framework to maintain human-centred workflows and processes.
C – Consent: the principle of consent should be the basis upon which generative AI tools are developed and used. Permission must be sought to use copyright-protected works, both for generative AI training and for creating new works, with a clear public disclosure statement covering other AI-assisted workflows. Consent must be freely given and meaningful, including the right to say no, if rightsholders refuse to license the use of their work for generative AI training or other AI processes.
L – Licensing, not scraping: licensing provides the lawful and transparent route for AI developers to access creative works, which enables the possibility of fair payment and attribution to rightsholders.
E – Ethical use: we need enforceable ethical standards for the sourcing, curation and application of generative AI training data. We need to ensure human oversight at every stage of the AI lifecycle to protect the integrity of the sector. We will champion human creativity and the value of human ideas, research, judgement and creative development. If necessary, where generative AI is applied as a tool, it will be used responsibly and sustainably, to support creators’ work rather than replace it.
A – Accountability: of which copyright-protected works have been used, how they were obtained and whether they influenced outputs. There should be transparency and clear labelling over the use of AI tools in the creative industries – whether training, processing or generating outputs. It should be a requirement to know as far as is reasonably possible, when AI tools are used in material ways. Those who use AI should disclose it, so that others know when they are interacting with AI-generated content.
R – Rights and remuneration: we will respect intellectual property rights and Cultural Sovereignty. Creators’ works should be attributed and paid for fairly. Generative AI should not be used as a reason to unfairly reduce fees, timescales or the creative role of commissioned professionals. Minority languages and Indigenous Cultural Sovereignty must be protected. Indigenous Cultural Sovereignty recognises the inherent right of Indigenous Peoples to maintain, protect, and develop their cultures. Cultural protocols must be adhered to in the development and use of AI tools.
UNESCO 10 Ethical Principles of Responsible AI
1. Proportionality and Do No Harm
The use of AI systems must not go beyond what is necessary to achieve a legitimate aim. Risk assessment should be used to prevent harms which may result from such uses.
2. Safety and Security
Unwanted harms (safety risks) as well as vulnerabilities to attack (security risks) should be avoided and addressed by AI actors.
3. Right to Privacy and Data Protection
Privacy must be protected and promoted throughout the AI lifecycle. Adequate data protection frameworks should also be established.
4. Multi-stakeholder and Adaptive Governance and Collaboration
International law and national sovereignty must be respected in the use of data. Additionally, participation of diverse stakeholders is necessary for inclusive approaches to AI governance.
5. Responsibility and Accountability
AI systems should be auditable and traceable. There should be oversight, impact assessment, audit and due diligence mechanisms in place to avoid conflicts with human rights norms and threats to environmental wellbeing.
6. Transparency and Explainability
The ethical deployment of AI systems depends on their transparency and explainability (T&E). The level of T&E should be appropriate to the context, as there may be tensions between T&E and other principles such as privacy, safety and security.
7. Human Oversight and Determination
Organisations should ensure that AI systems do not displace ultimate human responsibility and accountability.
8. Sustainability
AI technologies should be assessed against their impacts on ‘sustainability’, understood as a set of constantly evolving goals including those set out in the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals.
9. Awareness and Literacy
Public understanding of AI and data should be promoted through open and accessible education, civic engagement, digital skills and AI ethics training, media and information literacy.
10. Fairness and non-discrimination
AI actors should promote social justice, fairness, and non-discrimination while taking an inclusive approach to ensure AI’s benefits are accessible to all.
*The Amnesty International report ‘Unlawful by design: Exposing the human rights costs of generative AI’ is also a useful briefing which examines how standalone generative AI systems, based on unlawful web scraping, are in conflict with international human rights law and standards through their design, development and deployment. While these technologies promise sophisticated automation and efficiency, they rely on data collection and model training practices that abuse privacy rights, enable discrimination, and threaten freedom of expression and thought.
Given the evolving nature of AI regulation around the world, we will review this Charter annually with input from signatories.
Signatories can choose to remove their organisation from this voluntary Charter at any time by contacting publicaffairs at societyofauthors.org
This Charter draws on UNESCO principles and UK trade associations’ CLEAR regulatory framework. Application in different territories with different copyright regimes may vary.
