Why generative AI companies should pay artists to create new works, and give away the results – Walled Culture

"But I’d go further than Mike. I think generative AI companies should be paying for the creation of all kinds of original material – text, images, audio, videos. Text may be the best-known form of generative AI, but it is by no means the only one. Companies need visual and audio training material just as much as text-based ones.

The actual cost of supporting artists in this way would be relatively small compared to the valuation of generative AI companies, and the potential of the market. The diminutive size of the copyright world compared to the digital sector is something that is often overlooked when people discuss the tension between the two. It was why a decade ago I suggested that Google should buy the entire music industry to solve the problems it was having with licensing material back then. The parallels with today’s issues are striking.

I also think that the material generated under such a scheme should be placed in the public domain for anyone to use...."