We all stood up
Because so many more couldn't be there with us.
On May 6, over 25 creatives woke up, had breakfast, got in their planes, trains, and automobiles, and headed for the State Capitol in Sacramento. Made their way through security, down an ornate, impressively quiet hallway, into a well appointed vintage elevator, and up a few floors into a small room.
There they sat, patiently waiting.
Writers. Artists. Musicians. Singers. Voice actors. Art directors. Designers. Concept artists. Illustrators. Comic artists. Animators. Art educators.
The Assembly Judiciary Committee would begin soon, and the bill the creatives had come to support was first on the agenda. They were excited, a little nervous, but determined. Some had prepared short statements to read. Others hadn’t, but simply being in the room was enough. It was bodies on the line.
But when the hearing began, another bill was called. We assumed our bill was still getting its makeup done (those of us in the movie biz know that reality all too well). All good, we thought, we’ll surely be next.
But we weren’t. A different bill was called after that. So we sat through that. Then, another bill, and another. There were bills regulating surveillance pricing—the practice of altering the prices of products on the shelves in real time, based on a customer’s cellphone location and their profile. A bill addressing sex discrimination in our post secondary schools. A bill addressing involuntary commitment for people deemed “a danger to themselves or society.” A bill on the language requirements for residential rental properties. And on and on.
Somehow, the original order of the bills for this hearing had been changed. But we knew that might happen—it sometimes does. And so you wait. But in waiting, and sitting quietly, you also get an insight into all the other bills that the committee works through. You see what other people in your community—your neighborhood, your town, your state—care about. What’s hurting or troubling them, and how they think it can be fixed. What’s important to them. You hear the arguments for and against the proposed legislation. You hear the Assemblymembers speak, their expert witnesses, and also the members of the public.
”This is how law becomes law,” I told my high school-age daughter, who was with me in the room that day. “You’re at the heart of it right here.”
Nearly two hours later, our bill, AB 412, was called up. You could feel a perceptible wave pulse through the room, as all of us perked up. It was time.
Tim Friedlander, the head of the National Association of Voice Actors, stole the show with his passionate call to protect the rights of creatives, and a voice made of honey emeralds that mesmerized the committee members (this wasn’t Tim’s first rodeo). Another expert witness, an IP attorney, also spoke on behalf of the bill.
In essence, AB 412 requires developers of generative artificial intelligence models to document the sources of the data they use to train those models, and make that information available to rights holders so they can make informed decisions about how their intellectual property should or may be used. What we creatives call “art” or “our work,” developers call “data.” Paintings reduced to pixels. Novels reduced to tokens. Music reduced to bits of sound.
Simply put, the bill calls for transparency. Not surprisingly, certain arms of the tech industry have been fighting this bill tooth, nail, and limb. Gorging on the work of creative professionals for free, with no accountability, is simply too tempting.
After the opening arguments, the Committee called on the public.
"Is anyone else here in support of AB 412?" asked the Chair.
We all stood up at once. Easily 70% of the room. An audible gasp rushed through the audience as we stood, and approached the mic one by one. We gave our names. Our titles. From the very senior (a retired comic illustrator whose career started with DC Comics in the 1970's) to the very young (my own teen artist and musician daughter), we spoke up, loud and clear. We expressed our undying, firm support for this bill to safeguard our rights as creatives, whether amateur or professional, in the face of Big AI’s relentless efforts to twist the Fair Use arm of Copyright and be granted carte blanche to scrape our work with impunity and zero accountability.
I’m happy to share AB 412 received the votes it needed to advance to the next stage.
But with Shira Perlmutter, Register of Copyrights and Director of the U.S. Copyright Office having been unexpectedly let go this weekend—not long after her office released a preview report that did not cozy up to Big AI, and just days after Dr. Carla Hayden, the Librarian of Congress, was also released from her duties—the stakes of this battle have only increased.
Hold this reality in your heart. The administration fired our Librarian of Congress, and the Director of the U.S. Copyright Office.
In addition to that, a bit of text was slipped into the Budget Reconciliation bill by House Republicans late on Sunday night. Yes, on the night of Mother’s Day:
“...no State or political subdivision thereof may enforce any law or regulation regulating artificial intelligence models, artificial intelligence systems, or automated decision systems during the 10 year period beginning on the date of the enactment of this Act.” (Source: 404 Media)
So… they want to prohibit states from regulating artificial intelligence systems in any way. For a decade.
So much for states’ rights.
Some might ask, why bother. All those tired tropes of “AI is here to stay, why fight it?” We’re all such dinosaurs for not seeing the brilliant lights of a technofeudal future dreamed up by billionaire executives.
To draw inspiration from the words of another nation’s hero, I’d rather die standing up for my fellow creatives than relinquish my life’s work and passion to an algorithm. Much more than hope, we must hold our convictions firm. The right to create, the right to control your work, and the right to earn your living from your own work, are inalienable moral rights. This runs deeper than legislation, farther than any economic measure. We’re standing up for our very right to breathe. 🙏
If you’d like to watch the proceedings, here’s the link. The proceedings for AB 412 start at the 02:19:12 mark.
And if you’d like to join us for the next session or submit a letter of support, DM me.
May humanity prevail at this crossroads.