WGGB publishes policy position on risks and benefits of AI

The Writers’ Guild of Great Britain, WGGB, has published Writers and AI, a policy position statement outlining the challenges caused by AI and the risks that go with it, as well as the potential benefits of AI.

The statement was released in response to the union’s recent survey, which revealed that 65% of 500 respondents believed the increased use of AI will reduce their income from writing, while 61% were worried that AI could replace jobs in their craft areas.

The survey came on top of an early impact assessment by OpenAI which indicated that the exposure risk to poets, lyricists and creative writers was amongst the highest, at 68.8%.

Additionally, a recent report by KPMG, Generative AI and the UK Labour Market estimated that 43% of the tasks associated with authors, writers and translators could be automated, with humans "fine tuning" machine output.

The policy position statement published in response to the data addresses various ongoing concerns about AI. These include decreased job opportunities for writers, the suppression of writer pay, infringements of copyright and the use of writers’ work without their permission, plus lack of adequate regulation from the government.

The statement says: "While the AI systems are not yet sophisticated enough to produce works which accurately mimic the standard of writing produced by professional writers, this is a likely future scenario.

However, the WGGB does not believe that AI will be able to replicate the originality, authenticity, enthusiasm and humanity that professional writers put into their storytelling."

The WGGB explains it believes that, if used in an ethical, transparent and responsible way, there are potential benefits – including allowing writers to diversify and increase their income streams and sustain a writing career.

The policy position statement makes a number of recommendations, which will be used to inform the union’s lobbying and campaigning work. It outlines that AI developers should only use writers’ work if they have been given express permission to do so, reflecting the view of 80% of respondents to the WGGB survey.

In addition, the statement outlines that AI developers should maintain "clear and accessible" logs of the information used to train their tool to allow writers to check if their work has been used. Where content has been generated or decisions have been made by AI and not a human being, it adds that this needs to be clearly labelled as such.

The statement goes on to outline that where AI has been used to create content, developers should appropriately credit the authors whose work has been used to create such content. It adds that writers should also be fairly compensated when developers use their work.

Meanwhile, 59% of respondents to the WGGB AI survey reported believing that a new, independent regulator should be set up to oversee and monitor the expansion of AI. The union echoes this position in the statement, saying it "believes the government should set up a new regulatory body whose remits specifically covers AI, applicable to all future and previous AI development work, so that writers and others are able to assert their rights regarding work which has already been used without their knowledge or permission".

The government should not allow any copyright exceptions to allow text and data mining for commercial purposes, the statement adds, as this would allow AI developers to "scrape writers’ work form online sources, without permission or payment".

It also outlines that there should be "clear, accessible and affordable" routes for writers to challenge the practices of AI developers and bring claims regarding the use of their work.

WGGB deputy general secretary Lesley Gannon commented: "There have been some incredible advancements in AI, but as with any new technology we need to weigh the risks against the benefits and ensure that the speed of development does not outpace or derail the protections that writers and the wider creative workforce rely upon to make a living.

“Regulation is clearly needed to safeguard workers’ rights, and protect audiences from fraud and misinformation. WGGB is proposing a series of sensible recommendations that will help protect and reassure the writing community, while allowing them to enjoy the benefits of this undoubtedly powerful tool.”

Last month the Publishers Association announced it was forming a new AI Taskforce to support the industry.