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As creative industries grapple with AI\u2019s explosion into every artistic medium at once, separate calls from artists warning the world to take action before it\u2019s too late are starting to converge. From fake Drake songs<\/a> to stylized Instagram profile pictures<\/a>, art conjured with newly sophisticated AI tools is suddenly ubiquitous \u2014 and so are conversations about how to rein in the technology before it does irrevocable harm to creative communities.<\/p>\n This week, digital rights organization Fight for the Future partnered with music industry labor group United Musicians and Allied Workers to launch #AIdayofaction, <\/a>a campaign that calls on Congress to block corporations from obtaining copyrights on music and other art made with AI.<\/p>\n The idea is that by preventing industry behemoths like major record labels, for example, from copyrighting music made with the assistance of AI, those companies will be forced to keep looping humans into the creative process. But those same concerns \u2014 and the same potential strategies for pushing back against the onslaught of AI \u2014 exist across creative industries.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s funny because if you\u2019ve talked to musicians who have these concerns, they say, \u2018well, authors have been very quiet.\u2019 If you talk to others about these concerns, they\u2019ll say, \u2018well, musicians and photographers don\u2019t seem to care at all,\u2019\u201d Fight for the Future<\/a> Campaigns and Communications Director Lia Holland told TechCrunch. \u201cSo part of it also is that the different creative fields, when it comes to this sort of work, are a little bit siloed.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThat was another intent with our launching this effort with the day of action, to try to illustrate how these are these are common concerns that are shared across artistic mediums. And to create an organizing point\u2026 because when artists of different mediums move together they have a lot more power.\u201d<\/p>\n The campaign targets potential corporate abuse of AI technology, but it\u2019s realistic about the ways that musicians and some other creatives could benefit on an individual level from automating parts of their work. The goal is that AI tools \u201cbecome ways for individual humans to make more money, work less, and compete with the corporations that exploit them.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s really interesting from a music perspective, specifically, because\u2026 musicians are perhaps more familiar with the idea of AI,\u201d Holland said. \u201cMusicians in general are more familiar with things like music production software, and AI tools like like MIDI drum loops\u2026 so I think that there is a certain amount of more progressive learning from them, when it comes to technology, and its ability to make their music better.\u201d<\/p>\n When it comes to art and AI, the conversation is complicated, to say the least. Musicians are nervous about industry giants copyrighting AI music and cutting them out of the process. Major record labels are worried about AI models<\/a> training on their catalogues and stealing a slice of their considerable pie. Spotify erased thousands of AI-crafted songs<\/a> from its platform but also recently globally launched an AI-powered DJ<\/a> that curates music for listeners while talking to them in a synthetic voice.<\/p>\n \u201cThe training of generative AI using our artists\u2019 music\u2026 begs the question as to which side of history all stakeholders in the music ecosystem want to be on: the side of artists, fans and human creative expression, or on the side of deep fakes, fraud and denying artists their due compensation,\u201d Universal Music Group said after a song using AI to imitate Drake and The Weeknd, two of its artists, went viral.<\/p>\n These same conversations and contradictions are manifesting across creative industries, but artists themselves don\u2019t always have a seat at the table. Independent artists in particular are learning that their voices resonate louder when coming together across disciplines to push back against what Holland describes as an \u201cextraordinary spectrum of exploitation\u201d that leverages their work.<\/p>\n In a roundtable hosted by the FTC<\/a> this week, the agency brought together figures from across creative industries \u2014 from voice acting and science fiction to screenwriting, music, illustration and even fashion \u2014 to delve into how generative AI is affecting creatives.<\/p>\n \u201cI know that generative AI in particular poses a unique set of opportunities and challenges to creative industries,\u201d FTC Chair Lina Khan said. \u201cWe\u2019ve already heard significant concerns about how these technologies could virtually overnight significantly disempower creators and artists who may watch their life\u2019s creation be appropriated into models over which they have no control.\u201d<\/p>\n In the comments, representatives from myriad creative communities expressed concerns around opt-out requirements that by default train AI models on artists\u2019 original work, and how existing copyright law could be a useful if not comprehensive tool for setting out regulatory guardrails.<\/p>\n