Protecting Creativity from AI

Protecting Creativity from AI

The questions and the rules. Will there still be a place for copyright? To regulate the future, nations should look to the post-war era.

In this article, Riccardo Rossotto explores the challenges artificial intelligence poses to creativity, copyright and the world of communications, drawing on the debate at an event hosted by the Armando Testa agency in Turin. “Relax, dear colleagues… let’s regain a little calm and approach this issue with composure, but with the attention it deserves,” Marco Ricolfi urged in his closing remarks. The event examined both the hopes and the fears surrounding AI’s impact on our lives. “Let us remember,” Ricolfi stressed, “that over the past three millennia, humanity has repeatedly faced revolutions that seemed to threaten its very survival, yet have in fact always contributed to the evolution of our species.”

With contributions from numerous experts from 15 countries, the conference addressed the key questions raised by the arrival of artificial intelligence in our lives and in communications. How can copyright survive? How can advertising professionals’ creativity be protected? What is the right balance between protecting privacy and developing AI systems? How can we protect our image and reputation in an online world where robots could be directing communications?

In recent weeks, we have read the dire warnings of British researcher Jacob Coxon, a former Anthropic employee, who resigned precisely because “no one is acting responsibly; everyone is racing at supersonic speed towards a superintelligence capable of improving itself, putting our lives at risk, while no one is looking out for us as citizens”.

On the other hand, we have also read that the US government has intervened in the case pending before a New York court involving The New York Times, OpenAI and Microsoft. President Trump’s lawyers have taken a position in the dispute between the publisher, which alleges that millions of its articles were used by AI platforms without permission and therefore in breach of copyright law, and the two companies behind ChatGPT and Copilot, which dispute those allegations. The US Department of Justice recently filed a brief setting out America’s interests in the case. President Trump is working to remove every barrier to US success in the AI industry. Any restrictive rules on algorithm training would favour companies in countries such as China, where legal constraints are less stringent. The US government also points out that some of the country’s leading AI companies are developing significant military applications and should therefore not be held back.

“They cannot be left to regulate themselves,” wrote Riccardo Luna, a respected journalist specialising in technological innovation. “For years, Big Tech companies have promised to find solutions that protect our privacy, our children’s education and respect for the law in an AI-connected world. So far, almost all of these promises have proved to be empty words.” Professor Floridi continues to stress the need to define an ethical and legal framework within which these technological innovations must operate, respecting its restrictions and prohibitions.

Riccardo Rossotto argues that this calls for a global effort involving all nations, following the example set in the post-war period in response to the threat of nuclear proliferation. The major powers signed treaties that curbed its spread, creating what would become the most important deterrent against the use of atomic bombs. Today, with the UN effectively sidelined, it is harder to imagine achieving something similar. Yet world leaders must work towards an international treaty that acknowledges the development of artificial intelligence while limiting its potential for catastrophic outcomes, such as robots defying human instructions.