Advice: Harness the power of creativity for AI development

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is profoundly influencing our culture. Therefore, it is important that AI works for us and not the other way around. This can only happen if we protect the power of creativity and use it to steer the rapid development of AI. Urgent action is needed for this, including from the government. This is stated in an advisory report from the Council for Culture to the government and parliament. The advisory report is addressed to Minister Letschert of Education, Culture and Science and was presented in The Hague today.

AI offers a great deal of inspiration, but its rapid rise is also accompanied by significant concerns. This stems from the way AI is designed and developed, the council states. The development of AI is largely in the hands of a small number of primarily American companies, which are mainly focused on making as much profit as possible. “As the Council for Culture, we have serious concerns about this,” says chairwoman Kristel Baele. “Precisely because this is eminently a cultural technology, its development should not be profit-driven, but value-driven. We can also exert influence on this ourselves. Now is the time for government and the sector to jointly protect the power of creativity and utilise it for this purpose.”

Stimulus programme

The Council recommends investing in a ‘Towards a European AI Culture’ incentive programme, modelled on the Growth Fund projects. This programme should provide scope for the sector to continue working on public alternatives to current technology in collaboration with government and business. This is already happening on a small scale, but there is a significant opportunity here if we can harness the innovative power of the creative industry.

Government Commissioner and social taskforce

In addition, the council advocates for a government commissioner for AI in its advice. This commissioner can fulfil a driving function to develop a government-wide integrated approach to AI policy in collaboration with the various departments. This government official can be fed signals from the field. These can be gathered and passed on via a societal taskforce for AI and culture, to be initiated by the sector.

Cultural data

The council inherently views AI as a cultural technology. After all, all AI models are trained on cultural data, which was once conceived and compiled by creative makers. This online data represents immense cultural and societal value. Today's creative makers are also using AI in their creative processes, but figures show that they are receiving fewer and fewer commissions, particularly due to generative AI.

Content charges

The council considers it crucial that fair compensation be introduced for the use of cultural data by AI companies. The European Parliament has also already called for this. The advice advocates for the introduction of a content levy for AI providers. As soon as they offer their generative AI system on the Dutch market, they will have a legal obligation to pay for the use of cultural data. The levy can therefore be collected directly in the Netherlands. The collective revenues from this levy will benefit creators and the cultural and creative sector. This can be done, for example, through the system of collective management organisations, such as BumaStemra.

The advice“Artistically above artificial, towards a value-driven application of AI for the cultural and creative sector” is prepared by a committee of experts chaired by Martijn van der Steen. Other members of the committee are: Abdelhadi Baaddi, Danielle Arets, Martin Senftleben, Tom van de Wetering and Wike Been.