Where We Stand on AI – CARTOONIST COOPERATIVE
WE, THE ARTISTS OF THE CARTOONIST COOPERATIVE, DEMAND PUBLISHERS, EMPLOYERS, AND ANYONE COMMISSIONING ARTISTS TO PRIORITIZE THE LABOR OF HUMAN WORKERS. AS UNITED ARTISTS, WE CALL UPON ANY MAKER OF GENERATIVE ALGORITHMS OR AI TECH TO DEMOCRATIZE THE USE OF AND ACCESS TO GENERATIVE AI TOOLS.
OUR DEMANDS ON EMPLOYERS ARE AS FOLLOWS:
- Publishers, employers, and commissioners must not require use of generative algorithms or generative AI (gen-AI) tools. Payment and timescales for any creative project must respect the needs of digital and especially traditional artists.
- Publishers, employers, and commissioners must disclose to both workers and the public if gen-AI has been used on any creative work, at any stage of the production pipeline.
- Publishing or other creative employment contracts must include a clause stating that said employer cannot use, sell, or license a creator’s work to train any AI or algorithm. Any contract without such a clause shall be considered to be exploitative.
REGARDING THE USE OF TOOLS:
- As united artists, we disallow the submission of another artist’s work to any gen-AI dataset without permission. Any acceptable possible submission must be for datasets that are transparent in how data is used, stored, and retained. Artists must be able to withdraw their work from such datasets at any time.
- Any artist making use of generative algorithms or AI must set payment and timescales for deliverables in a way that does not undercut digital and especially traditional artists. If such tools are used at all, we STRONGLY ENCOURAGE exclusive use of personal, homebrew models, especially those which are open-source and copyright-free.
- Any artist creating work with the assistance of a generative algorithm or AI must clearly indicate its use in publication of the work.
Further: we encourage the hiring of artists by other artists over using AI, whenever possible. We call for prioritization and support of traditional artists, especially, as they are the group most likely to be negatively impacted by these tools.
We also acknowledge that the abuses of the tech industry do not begin with or are contained solely within AI programs. We call for an end to mass data-scraping and surveillance by individuals, companies, governments, and other entities. We call for AI-creating companies to prioritize the needs and wants of their workers in the Global South. And finally, we call for such companies and the Western tech industry generally to return power to regions most affected by the trade of conflict minerals. We stand against the child labor and environmental destruction baked into the core of AI, computers, smart tablets, and almost all machines.
We stand in solidarity with those most affected by these issues, and are committed to the creation of a just society for all workers in the creative industry supply chain, now and forever. ∎