I welcome this motion and thank my colleague, Deputy Aengus Ó Snodaigh, for tabling it at this important juncture in the era of generative AI. This motion sets out the bare parameters to protect our artists in their struggle to earn a living through their creativity, culture and to safeguard a human connection that they share with the rest of humanity, and indeed the unique and special place they hold among the people of Ireland. These are the fundamental issues that we must address as a nation. The right of consent must be embedded in domestic legislation. Content creators must give full consent before their material can be used for generative AI models. The right of refusal must be covered too. Using data sets that use artists' works without their consent or authorisation to train large language models is not a fair use as claimed by many of these generative AI platforms. We would like to see regulation that mandates these platforms and organisations to ensure synthetic text generated by LLMs is watermarked and thus detectable. Compensation and remuneration must be included in this equation for all Irish artists. The burning question to be answered here is who owns the intellectual property created by AI, especially when that same intellectual property is plagiarised from artists and used to train these large language models and other AI models. These models produce systems with text, video, voice and music inputs and outputs, making billions from other people's genius and creativity. This motion calls for the Government to use its influence in our Presidency of the European Council to force attention on the protection of copyright of artists from generative AI. State funding for art must not be used to fund or spent on generative AI artifacts that use artists' creative works without their consent. The symbol of our country is the harp. The symbol of culture is resilience. The motto for my own county, Wexford, is that it shall be restrung and reheard. It is now time to hear the voice of our artists, to come to their defence, and to stand up to protect their rights and livelihoods before we lose them to generative AI machines forever. I ask all TDs to support this motion.

Sentiment score: 0.25