On Wednesday, 42 German organisations and unions that represent more than 140,000 writers, singers, and artists urged the European Union to strengthen proposed artificial intelligence legislation as they cited the harm ChatGPT poses to their copyright.

In a letter to the European Commission, European Council, and EU legislators, the creative industry trade unions Verdi and DGB as well as groups for photographers, designers, journalists, and illustrators laid forth their concerns.

The letter emphasized the mounting concerns regarding generative artificial intelligence (AI) systems like ChatGPT, which can imitate humans and generate text and graphics in response to commands.

The letter obtained by Reuters stated that “before irreparable harm occurs, it is necessary to address fundamental questions of accountability, liability, and remuneration raised by the unauthorized use of protected training material, its non-transparent processing, and the foreseeable replacement of the sources by the output of generative AI.”

Any significant regulation of the AI business must center on “generative AI,” it stated.
Before the rules become law, the European Commission, which proposed AI regulations last year, will work out the last-minute specifics with EU parliamentarians and member states.

The groups said that the regulations should be strengthened to better control generative AI across the whole product cycle, particularly with regard to foundation model suppliers.

They also demand that the makers of such technology be held accountable for all content produced by the AI and distributed as a result, particularly for content that violates intellectual property rights, misrepresents the truth, or is discriminatory.

According to the letter, foundation model service providers like Microsoft (MSFT.O), Alphabet’s Google, Amazon, and Meta Platforms shouldn’t be permitted to run central platform services for the distribution of digital material.