“Accessibility means putting art out there!” Sumona tells us in this episode about how Delhi’s Art Gallery (DAG) approaches open access from various perspectives. Sumona shares insight into creating exhibitions that inform the public and shed light on recent history in digital and physical spaces.
Open Culture VOICES is a series of short videos that highlight the benefits and barriers of open culture as well as inspiration and advice on the subject of opening up cultural heritage. Sumona is the Vice President of Museum Programs at DAG where she has worked with museum collections and the institutions own collection to increase access to cultural heritage.
Sumona responds to the following questions:
What are the main benefits of open GLAM?
What are the barriers?
Could you share something someone else told you that opened up your eyes and mind about open GLAM?
Do you have a personal message to those hesitating to open up collections?
Closed captions are available for this video, you can turn them on by clicking the CC icon at the bottom of the video. A red line will appear under the icon when closed captions have been enabled. Closed captions may be affected by Internet connectivity — if you experience a lag, we recommend watching the videos directly on YouTube.
“CC Icon Statue” by Creative Commons, generated in part by the DALL-E 2 AI platform. CC dedicates any rights it holds to this image to the public domain via CC0.
Many wonder what role CC licenses, and CC as an organization, can and should play in the future of generative AI. The legal and ethical uncertainty over using copyrighted inputs for training, the uncertainty over the legal status and best practices around works produced by generative AI, and the implications for this technology on the growth and sustainability of the open commons have led CC to examine these issues more closely. We want to address some common questions, while acknowledging that the answers may be complex or still unknown.
We use “artificial intelligence” and “AI” as shorthand terms for what we know is a complex field of technologies and practices, currently involving machine learning and large language models (LLMs). Using the abbreviation “AI” is handy, but not ideal, because we recognize that AI is not really “artificial” (in that AI is created and used by humans), nor “intelligent” (at least in the way we think of human intelligence).
CC licensing and training AI on copyrighted works
Can you use CC licenses to restrict how people use copyrighted works in AI training?
This is among the most common questions that we receive. While the answer depends on the exact circumstances, we want to clear up some misconceptions about how CC licenses function and what they do and do not cover.
You can use CC licenses to grant permission for reuse in any situation that requires permission under copyright. However, the licenses do not supersede existing limitations and exceptions; in other words, as a licensor, you cannot use the licenses to prohibit a use if it is otherwise permitted by limitations and exceptions to copyright.
This is directly relevant to AI, given that the use of copyrighted works to train AI may be protected under existing exceptions and limitations to copyright. For instance, we believe there are strong arguments that, in most cases, using copyrighted works to train generative AI models would be fair use in the United States, and such training can be protected by the text and data mining exception in the EU. However, whether these limitations apply may depend on the particular use case.
It’s also useful to look at this from the perspective of the licensee — the person who wants to use a given work. If a work is CC licensed, does that person need to follow the license in order to use the work in AI training? Not necessarily — it depends on the specific use.
To the extent your AI training is covered by an exception or limitation to copyright, you need not rely on CC licenses for the use.
To the extent you are relying on CC licenses to train AI, you will need to follow the relevant requirements under the licenses.
Another common question we hear is “Does complying with CC license conditions mean you’re always legally permitted to train AI on that CC-licensed work?”
Not necessarily — it is important to note here that CC licenses only give permission for rights granted by copyright. They do not address where other laws may restrict training AI, such as privacy laws, which are always a consideration where material contains personal data and are not addressed by copyright licensing. (Many kinds of personal data are not covered by copyright at all, but may still be covered by privacy-related regulations.)
For more explanation and a flowchart regarding the CC licenses in this context, please see our FAQ on AI and CC licenses.
CC Licenses and outputs of Generative AI
In the current context of rapidly developing AI technologies and practices, governments scrambling to regulate AI, and courts hearing cases regarding the application of existing law, our intent is to give our community the best guidance available right now. If you create works using generative AI, you can still apply CC licenses to the work you create with the use of those tools and share your work in the ways that you wish. The CC license you choose will apply to the creative work that you contribute to the final product, even if the portion produced by the generative AI system itself may be uncopyrightable. We encourage the use of CC0 for those works that do not involve a significant degree of human creativity, to clarify the intellectual property status of the work and to ensure the public domain grows and thrives.
Beyond copyright
Though using CC licenses and legal tools for training data and works produced by generative AI may address some legal uncertainty, it does not solve all the ethical concerns raised, which go far beyond copyright — involving issues of privacy, consent, bias, economic impacts, and access to and control over technology, among other things. Neither copyright nor CC licenses can or should address all of the ways that AI might impact people. There are no easy solutions, but it is clear we need to step outside of copyright to work together on governance, regulatory frameworks, societal norms, and many other mechanisms to enable us to harness AI technologies and practices for good.
We must empower and engage creators
Generative AI presents an amazing opportunity to be a transformative tool that supports creators — both individuals and organizations — provides new avenues for creation, facilitates better sharing, enables more people to become creators, and benefits the commons of knowledge, information, and creativity for all.
But there are serious concerns, such as issues around author recognition and fair compensation for creators (and the labor market for artistic work in general), the potential flood of AI-generated works on the commons making it difficult to find relevant and trustworthy information, and the disempowering effect of the privatization and enclosure of AI services and outputs, to name a few.
For many creators, these and other issues may be a reason not to share their works at all under any terms, not just via CC licensing. CC wants AI to augment and support commons, not detract from it, and we want to see solutions to these concerns to avoid AI turning creators away from contributing to the commons altogether.
Join us
We believe that trustworthy, ethical generative AI should not be feared, but instead can be beneficial to artists, creators, publishers, and to the public more broadly. Our focuses going forward will be:
To develop and share principles, best practices, guidance, and training for using generative AI to support the commons. We don’t have all the answers — or necessarily all the questions — and we will work collaboratively with our community to establish shared principles.
To continue to engage our community and broaden it to lift up diverse, global voices and find ways to support different types of sharing and creativity.
Additionally, it is imperative that we engage more with AI developers and services to increase their support for transparency and ethical, public-interest tools and practices. CC will be seeking to collaborate with partners who share our values and want to create solutions that support a thriving commons.
For over two decades we have stewarded the legal infrastructure that enables open sharing on the web. We now have an opportunity to reimagine sharing and creativity in this new age. It is time to build new infrastructure that supports better sharing with generative AI.
We invite you to join us in this work, as we continue to openly discuss, deliberate, and take action in this space. Follow along with our blog series on AI, subscribe to our newsletter, support our work, or join us at one of our upcoming events. We’re particularly excited to welcome our community back in-person to Mexico City in October for the CC Global Summit, where the theme is focused squarely on AI & the commons. Consider attending and being part of the conversation: Registration is open now.
Like the rest of the world, CC has been watching generative AI and trying to understand the many complex issues raised by these amazing new tools. We are especially focused on the intersection of copyright law and generative AI. How can CC’s strategy for better sharing support the development of this technology while also respecting the work of human creators? How can we ensure AI operates in a better internet for everyone? We are exploring these issues in a series of blog posts by the CC team and invited guests that look at concerns related to AI inputs (training data), AI outputs (works created by AI tools), and the ways that people use AI. Read our overview on generative AI or see all our posts on AI.
On 27 July 2023 we hosted the first webinar in our new Open Culture Live series. In this session about the basics of Open Culture, we led a presentation that answers some of the key questions for beginners hoping to understand more about Creative Commons, and how we work closely with the cultural heritage sector to support the open sharing of digital collections. In this session we answered some basic questions including:
What is Creative Commons?
What is Open Culture?
Where can you find CC licenses out in the world?
How can you get involved in the CC Open Culture movement?
In the next episodes of the series we will be inviting panelists to speak about some other topics important to the Open Culture landscape including: Decolonization, Indigenization and Restitution; Open Culture & Artificial Intelligence; and Respectful Terminologies & Changing the Subject, and more.
Interested in getting more involved? Here are some ways you can stay up to date:
Join the Open Culture Platform, where we provide a space to share resources, enhance collaboration and raise awareness on open access to digital cultural heritage, working with Galleries, Libraries, Archives and Museums (GLAMs) professionals and open advocates.
We also welcome you to suggest other webinar topics you’d like to see — please reach out to culture@creativecommons.org with any ideas.
After two years of virtual summits, we are also excited to be hosting our first in person CC Summit in Mexico City from October 3–6. Please join us for more sessions on the intersections of Open Culture and topics like AI, traditional knowledge, and more.
CC is thrilled to be partnering with the Wikimedia Foundation to make Wikimania 2023 a reality. The gathering takes place 16–19 August both in Singapore and online. Whether you can make it to Singapore or not, register now to attend, participate, and access recorded sessions.
The CC and Wikimedian communities overlap in many ways and share common values and activities dedicated to building and sustaining open culture and knowledge. As a part of the program, CC team members are leading four sessions, outlined below. Many Wikimania attendees are also part of CC’s Global Network and platforms for copyright, open education, and open culture, or support CC in other ways. We celebrate this global gathering of people all working with shared values to realize common goals. Tune in to Wikimania with us!
Better Sharing in a World with AI: Creative Commons Looks Ahead
CEO Catherine Stihler and General Counsel Kat Walsh will kick off CC’s sessions with a joint keynote to guide participants through the journey CC has been on to understand how artificial intelligence (AI) intersects with CC’s 20-plus-year history of supporting open knowledge and culture globally with our licenses and legal tools. Then they will help participants look ahead to see how we can all advocate for policy and practices that ensure a world with AI will continue to support CC’s strategy of better sharing: sharing that is contextual, inclusive, just, equitable, reciprocal, and sustainable. Tune in: 2:00 UTC/10:00 SGT on Fri 18 Aug
Why Tackling Climate Change Needs Open Science and Open Culture
Open Climate Campaign Manager Monica Granados and Director of Policy and Open Culture Brigitte Vézina are leading a workshop about why tackling climate change needs both open science and culture. They describe: To arrive at solutions to climate change we need open access to knowledge. But climate change is caused by human activities, as such we also need open culture to understand why humans have caused climate change. In this workshop, we will remix public domain culture to raise climate awareness and highlight the need for both open climate and culture to solve climate change. Tune in: 3:15 UTC/11:15 SGT Fri 18 Aug
Building an Initiative for a Global Recommendation on Open Culture
CC’s open culture team will present how CC is building an initiative for a global recommendation on open culture. Team members Brigitte Vézina, Jocelyn Miyara, and Connor Benedict will report on what’s happening with the recommendation so far, including the May 2023 Lisbon meeting with global culture experts, and look to engage Wikimania’s broader and more diverse global participants in the initiative. Tune in: 6:55 UTC/14:55 SGT Fri 18 Aug
Exploring the Values That Will Shape AI for a Better internet
AI is deeply connected to networked digital technologies — from the bazillions of works harvested from the internet to train AI to all the ways AI is shaping our online experience, from generative content to recommendation algorithms and simultaneous translation. Representing the Movement for a Better Internet, co-founded by CC and other public-interest organizations, CC’s Director of Communications & Community Nate Angell is teaming up with consultant Shannon Hong to lead a workshop that will engage Wikimania participants directly in helping to shape how AI fits in to the Movement’s people-powered policy agenda. Tune in: 3:15 UTC/11:15 SGT Sat 19 Aug
Detail from “AI Outputs” by Creative Commons was generated by the DALL-E 2 AI platform with the text prompt “a robot painting its own self portrait in the style of Artemisia Gentileschi.” CC dedicates any rights it holds to the image to the public domain via CC0.
Are you thinking about how generative artificial intelligence (AI) intersects with creativity? Or how it draws from existing works and collections? Or enables new understandings of culture?
Join Creative Commons in NYC on 13 September 2023 for a full-day symposium focused on the intersection of generative artificial intelligence, cultural heritage, and contemporary creativity.
Bringing together cultural heritage experts, contemporary creators working with AI tools, and platform builders: Our focus will be on the relationship between access and reuse of cultural heritage and contemporary creativity, and an exploration of AI tools as a new means of creative expression building on the commons.
Hosted at NYU’s Engelberg Center, the symposium will feature a series of panels tackling critical questions, including:
Can AI propel cultural heritage institutions through their digital transformation?
Can AI help everyone enjoy culture as a global public good?
Open sharing of heritage collections and data: bounty or bane for creativity in the age of AI?
Fair remuneration of creators — Can AI be an answer?
Diversity, inclusivity, sustainability, and cultural identity — What role for AI?
Creativity, machines and the heritage commons — What collaboration opportunities are there?
Users as creators and users — Is AI blurring the lines of creativity?
Spots are limited! Register now to make sure you are part of the live conversation.
Note: Proceedings will be recorded for later viewing online after the event.
