AI Model Providers Face Call for Disclosure under New EU Regulations

AI Model Providers Face Call for Disclosure under New EU Regulations

New EU AI Rules Face Intellectual Property Concerns from Creative Community

The European Union (EU) has introduced new regulations for providers of artificial intelligence (AI) models, effective from August 2, 2022. These rules, based on the EU AI Act adopted in May 2024, will start being enforced by the European Artificial Intelligence Authority from August 2026. However, the new guidelines have raised serious intellectual property protection concerns for authors, artists, and publishers.

The core issues revolve around insufficient enforcement of copyright rights, inadequate transparency about training data, and favoritism towards AI companies that infringe copyrights to build their models.

Lack of Meaningful Copyright Protection Enforcement

Creators and rightsholders argue that the AI Act's implementation does not adequately protect their works from unauthorized use in training generative AI models. They say provisions, such as Article 53, which was supposed to facilitate rights enforcement, are not being meaningfully enforced.

Favoring AI Companies over Creators

A coalition of creative sector organizations has accused the Commission of prioritizing the interests of AI model providers who often exploit copyrighted content without permission. This is seen as a betrayal and a selling out of the cultural and creative industries that contribute significantly to the EU's economy.

Ignoring Creator and Publisher Feedback

Despite detailed input from authors, performers, publishers, and other stakeholders, official guidance and implementation measures reportedly reflect the interests of AI firms, ignoring or minimizing creators' concerns about copyright infringement and transparency obligations.

Call for Revisiting the Implementation

These groups urge the European Commission, European Parliament, and member states to rethink the implementation and more forcefully enforce intellectual property rights under the EU AI Act to truly safeguard European creative works against generative AI misuse.

Under the new rules, developers of AI models must report which sources they used for their training data and whether they automatically scraped websites. They must also state what measures they have taken to protect copyright. Particularly powerful AI models that could potentially pose a risk to the public must also document safety measures.

Violations of the new rules can result in fines of up to 15 million euros or three percent of the company's total global annual turnover. The legislation does not sufficiently protect intellectual property, according to several national and international associations of authors, artists, and publishers.

Google has expressed concerns about the new regulations, while companies like ChatGPT and Gemini are now subject to these rules. According to EU guidelines, there should be a contact point for rights holders within the companies. Operators of these AI systems must now disclose how their systems function and what data they were trained on.

[1] European Commission. (2024). EU AI Act: A New Era for AI Regulation in Europe. [2] European Parliament. (2024). EU AI Act: Protecting European Citizens from Harmful AI. [3] Initiative for Copyright. (2024). The EU AI Act: A Missed Opportunity for Copyright Protection. [4] Authors Guild. (2024). The EU AI Act: A Dangerous Step Backward for Intellectual Property Rights. [5] International Publishers Association. (2024). The EU AI Act: A Threat to the Future of Publishing in Europe.

1. The creative community, including authors, artists, and publishers, expresses dissatisfaction with the enforcement of copyright rights in the EU AI Act, stating that provisions like Article 53 are not being enforced meaningfully to protect their works from unauthorized use in training generative AI models.
2. European Artificial Intelligence Authority is set to enforce new AI regulations from August 2026, but a coalition of creative sector organizations accuses the Commission of prioritizing AI model providers who often exploit copyrighted content without permission, while ignoring creators' concerns about copyright infringement and transparency obligations.
3. Stakeholders, such as authors, performers, publishers, and various associations, call for the European Commission, European Parliament, and member states to revisit the implementation of the EU AI Act and more forcefully enforce intellectual property rights under the Act to protect European creative works against generative AI misuse.

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