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Member only guide to the Australian book industry.
MIN READ
As warnings mount about the existential threats of unregulated AI technology, and we await government action to legislate and address the offshore theft of creators’ work, we know that the use of generative AI tools in publishing and the book industry is increasing. That’s why the ASA has collaborated with international writers’ organisations to launch a global charter setting out commitments to the responsible and ethical use of generative AI services in our sector.
Developed using the UNESCO principles of responsible AI and the CLEAR framework, the Charter aims to define how generative AI services should only ever be deployed in ways that protect and support human creators.
Publishers, editors, librarians, booksellers and all book industry professionals are invited to sign up to the Ethical AI Charter to commit to:
ASA Chair Jen Mills says, ‘Authors have a right to expect transparency and fairness from our industry. Unchecked and ill-considered adoption of genAI tools is already affecting our livelihoods in multiple ways and eroding trust at every level. Without some basic industry standards, the fraud and exploitation we face will only escalate. This Charter is an important step in the global fight for better protections for human creators.’
ASA CEO, Lucy Hayward, says, ‘Leaders around the world have recognised the need for global guardrails for AI companies, but comprehensive regulation is yet to be introduced. That’s why we’ve partnered with international authors’ organisations to set out the ethical standards for use of generative AI services, to protect and promote human authorship.’
‘This Charter sits alongside our book industry advocacy work on artificial intelligence, including the development of AI clauses for publishing, literary agent, and other agreements. Like our contract templates, we are not intending to promote or encourage AI use in the publishing industry – rather, we’re aiming to provide authors with the protections and clear standards they need to guard their interests in relation to how generative AI is used in publishing.’
The ASA understands that many creators feel there can be no ethical AI use given all commercially-available large language models have been trained on copyright material scraped from the internet and pirate websites, without permission or payment to creators. The ASA’s advocacy on AI within the book industry makes up just one part of our overall campaign to protect authors interests. Our major fight is for government action on the theft of creators’ work, protections for Indigenous Cultural and Intellectual Property, and a strengthening of copyright protections for creators.
Hayward says, ‘The Charter won’t help to address the large-scale theft of authors’ work by Big Tech to train their tools, nor will it halt AI developers’ rapacious efforts to gut copyright protections around the world – but it is a step towards preventing further harm and supporting responsible best practice in the creative industries.’
