The National Writers Union (NWU) has published an official platform, drafted and ratified by the union's Generative AI Working Group, identifying the principles shaping its organizing work on generative artificial intelligence and its impacts on writers and media workers.
With the platform, the NWU has also finalized its response to the U.S. Copyright Office's Notice of Inquiry on AI and copyright, submitted on October 30. In its filing, the NWU stated: “The work [that media workers] produce is being used to train these systems without our knowledge or consent. Our careers, already precarious and devalued, are increasingly under threat, as corporations turn to generative AI as a ‘cost effective’ silver bullet.
In a blog post announcing the release of the platform, members of the NWU Generative AI Working Group describe the platform as "a resource to guide our organizing, activism, and advocacy and to inform NWU members, other creative workers, and allies about what generative AI is, how it is impacting us, and what we can do about it." It also outlines six core principles (solidarity; humanity; control and compensation; transparency; accountability; and integrity) and five key policy areas around which the working group's committee will turn.
The policy areas are as follows:
- Control
- Compensation
- Credit, labeling, and transparency
- Fair contracts
- Compliance with the Berne Convention and other copyright treaties
According to the blog post penned by working group members, the "platform builds on our lived experience with the growing impact of generative AI on our working lives and livelihoods, our fundamental principles as a labor union, our longstanding policy advocacy agenda, our history of engagement with Congress and the U.S. Copyright Office, our testimony at the Copyright Office 'listening sessions' on generative AI earlier this year, and extensive dialogue with other creators and allies in the U.S. and around the world."
