Creators Emergency Summit

After a highly successful inaugural event in March, the Creators Emergency Summit is back to hear strategies and solutions designed to help creators defend their livelihoods in the era of generative AI. We'll explore the latest technical innovations, get an update from those campaigning for a fairer and more ethical treatment of creative workers, and receive advice from leading experts in policymaking, academia and law.

No other gathering focuses on the plight of individual creatives as it seeks to provide practical advice on AI protections. The summit will include speakers from:

• Creator-led groups and creators from multiple facets of the creative industries.
• Academic institutions, research labs, think tanks, advocacy groups and campaign groups.
• Westminster, with leading Parliamentarians and their advisors.
• Ethically minded technology providers innovating protective solutions.

The summit's Principal Sponsors are Addleshaw Goddard, the international law firm, and BRAID (Bridging Responsible AI Divides), a UK-wide programme dedicated to integrating arts and humanities research more fully into the responsible AI ecosystem. BRAID is funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) and delivered in partnership with the Ada Lovelace Institute and the BBC.

Geoff Steward, Joint Head of IP and Partner at Addleshaw Goddard, said:

“I’m really pleased that Addleshaw Goddard is sponsoring the Creators Emergency Summit. As both an intellectual property partner at the firm and a musician myself, I understand the value of original work and the importance of protecting creativity. The creator economy is now a significant part of the modern economy, and the rapid pace of AI change is creating new challenges around intellectual property, technology and content ownership. Bringing creators together to discuss those issues and share ideas has never been more important, which is why we’re proud to support this event and be a part of that conversation.”

Professor Shannon Vallor FRSE, Co-director of BRAID (Bridging Responsible AI Divides) at the University of Edinburgh, said:

“The BRAID programme, funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council, is proud to sponsor the Creators Emergency Summit as part of our ongoing work to amplify the power, capacity and voice of creators in the UK’s Responsible AI ecosystem. The summit lends vital support to this ambition, enabling creators across the UK to come together to defend their rights, identify paths to recourse for wrongful injury to their interests, and reassert the irreplaceable value of their labour in any creative future.”

“The Creators’ Rights Alliance, a coalition of 21 creator-led groups, trade associations and unions, is proud to support this essential initiative. Creators need to know what they can do to protect themselves from exploitative AI companies.”

— Anna Ganley FRSA, CEO of the Society of Authors and Chair of the Creators’ Rights Alliance

“The Creators Emergency Summit is urgently needed. Once again, it’ll be a positive opportunity to explore and agree on the decisive actions we can, and should be, taking to protect the livelihoods of creators who need our support right now.”

— Isabelle Doran FRSA, CEO of the Association of Photographers and a Vice Chair of the Creators’ Rights Alliance

"Creators need action, not more uncertainty. The Creators Emergency Summit puts creators at the centre and brings together the experience, expertise and ideas needed to shape what comes next. Now is the time to develop practical solutions that protect creative livelihoods.”

— Rachel Hill, CEO, The Association of Illustrators

“A second Creators Emergency Summit will unite creators, industry and policymakers behind one uncompromising principle: AI growth must never come at the expense of intellectual property rights. The UK will not win by sacrificing its creators, we will win by leading the world in trusted, ethical AI that fuels innovation while protecting the creative industries that are one of our greatest national assets.”

— Dids Macdonald OBE, FRSA, Chair and Co-founder of Anti Copying in Design (ACID)

“By forming the Creators Emergency Summit Graham has curated a precious and vital space to exchange ideas, hear about ongoing work, meet one another, and sow the seeds of collaboration. The first summit was a triumph. I’m certain the next one will be too.”

— Dr Clementine Collett, BRAID Research Fellow, University of Cambridge

“It is a privilege and an inspiration to be part of the Creators Emergency Summit. Creatives are facing unprecedented challenges and erasures through technological interventions and distracted emphases on market measures. This over-simplification of creative value risks all our creative futures and the future health and wealth of our aesthetic lives. The Creators Emergency Summit is an invaluable voice at this time of crisis. In the truest spirit of the summit, creatives and creative workers across the vast range of creative industries and the full spectrum of creative work are engaged together on these issues. Creativity is a complex ecology and individual industries are but a part of that interconnectedness. It is how we work together that sustains the world.”

— Professor Johanna Gibson, Director of the FIVE LEAF Institute for Law and Aesthetics, Queen Mary, University of London

“Strength in collaboration is the heart of the Creators Emergency Summit. It is the only event which levies and combines strengths from across the creative sector to ensure creative voices are heard at the highest levels of law and government. Its continuance is critical to the feasibility and flourishing of the UK’s creative industries.”

— Rebecca Newman, Legal Director at Addleshaw Goddard

“The first summit proved creators aren’t waiting to be rescued — they’re organising. October is the moment that turns momentum into machinery: the tools, the standards and the deals that make creator rights enforceable rather than theoretical. Anyone serious about the future of creative work should be in that room.”

— Benjamin Woollams, CEO and Founder, TrueRights

“This unique event brings people together to share experiences and develop concrete solutions. I’m excited to understand the progress different groups have made over the summer and accelerate the initiatives that are working in practice.”

— James Rosewell, Co-founder, Movement for an Open Web

Info: Geoff Steward, Joint Head of IP and Partner at Addleshaw Goddard, a principal sponsor of the Summit, welcomes participants to the event.

Info: Graham Lovelace, Editor & Publisher of Charting Gen AI and Convenor of the Summit, is joined by Rebecca Newman, Legal Director at Addleshaw Goddard, as they explain where — after landmark legal rulings, government changes and policy announcements — things now stand on AI and creators’ intellectual property rights.

Info: Creators’ champion Baroness Kidron OBE considers where creatives are now in their long-running struggle for justice on AI and creative copyright, and where they need to be. A year on from her parliamentary campaign to introduce emergency transparency protections the award-winning filmmaker Beeban Kidron also comments on a major new policy paper from the University of Oxford’s Institute for Ethics in AI which is being launched at the Summit. The paper details the threats facing the UK’s creative sector and proposes a series of policy recommendations across ownership and consent, transparency, and fair licensing. Joining the conversation are the report’s co-authors: Lily Rodel, Researcher at the University of Oxford’s Institute for Ethics in AI; Simeon Goldstraw, Senior Parliamentary Assistant to Baroness Kidron.

Info: Leading politicians comment on the UK government's latest position on creative copyright and consider options facing ministers on how best to preserve the nation’s creative sector amid the disruptive threats of generative AI. Speakers: Baroness Debbonaire, Former Shadow Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport; Rachel Millward, Deputy Leader, the Green Party, and Spokesperson for Culture, Sport and Digital Inclusion; Pete Wishart MP, SNP Deputy Westminster Leader; Lord Holmes MBE, Member of the House of Lords Communications and Digital Committee.

Info: Best-selling novelist Andrea Bartz took on AI giant Anthropic ... and won. In an exclusive interview recorded for the Summit, Andrea — a lead plaintiff in the copyright lawsuit that culminated in Anthropic’s historic $1.5 billion settlement with authors — shares her experience of standing up to Big Tech.

Info: Creator group leaders reveal the latest impacts of generative AI on their members, and explain the protections they are seeking from ethical tech providers, legal experts and policymakers. What are the pitfalls creators need to avoid? And the self-help measures they can adopt? The conversation is led by Dr Clementine Collett, BRAID Research Fellow, University of Cambridge. Speakers: Anna Ganley FRSA, CEO, Society of Authors; Isabelle Doran FRSA, CEO, Association of Photographers; Dr Rachael Drury, Senior AI Policy Advisor, Independent Society of Musicians; Rachel Hill, CEO, Association of Illustrators; Dugald Johnson, Industrial Official, Agents and Professional Services, Equity

Info: This panel explores innovations designed to help creators defend their livelihoods. We meet academics and entrepreneurs developing solutions around content provenance, authentication, certification and labelling. Plus: tech that detects AI, and defeats it. This conversation is led by Graham Lovelace, Editor & Publisher of Charting Gen AI and Convenor of the Summit. Speakers: Virginie Berger, Chief Industry and Rights Officer, Neutune; Ned Hayes, Co-founder and Chief Product Officer, Human Intelligence® Institute; Sonia Hendy, Founder, The Hendy Collective; Tom Bowman, Advisor and Non-Executive Director. Includes a contribution from Ian Roper, Co-founder & CEO, Fribbler, and others.

Info: Kester Brewin, Associate Director at the Institute for the Future of Work, explains key issues surrounding AI licensing and discusses approaches being taken on behalf of creators by leaders of three collective management organisations (CMOs) as they seek fair remuneration for the use of works in AI training and fine-tuning. Speakers: Barbara Hayes, CEO, Authors' Licensing and Collecting Society (ALCS); Kevin Francis, Vice Chair, British Equity Collecting Society (BECS); Christian Zimmerman, CEO, Design and Artists Copyright Society (DACS).

Info: Prof Shannon Vallor FRSE, Baillie Gifford Chair in the Ethics of Data and Artificial Intelligence at the University of Edinburgh, and Co-director of the Bridging Responsible AI Divides (BRAID) research programme — a principal sponsor of the Summit — welcomes participants back to the event.

Info: Award-winning wildlife photographer Tim Flach is one of the world’s most-scraped artists. Two years ago he discovered the distinctive look of his animal portraits was being replicated by an AI image generator. Tim, President of the Association of Photographers, tells Graham Lovelace that what’s at stake isn’t just the economic damage to livelihoods but also the erosion of photography as a cultural document.

Info: This panel explores legal avenues open to UK creators. AI copyright class actions are big in the US. Why not in the UK, too? How is contract law forming the basis of a swift form of legal redress? How might laws on human rights, privacy and trademark laws come to the assistance of creators? This conversation is led by Rebecca Newman, Legal Director at Addleshaw Goddard. Speakers: Tim Flach, Wildlife Photographer and President of the Association of Photographers; Tim Cowen, Co-founder, Movement for an Open Web and Chair, Antitrust Practice, Preiskel & Co; Dr Susie Alegre, International Human Rights Lawyer and Member of the Board of Advisors, Tech Justice Law; Dr Che Ekaratne, Lecturer in Law at the University of Reading

Info: Did this summer’s booing of AI and protests against datacentres signal a turning point in public attitudes towards AI? What is meant by ‘critical AI’ and how is it relevant in the campaigns to educate fellow creatives, influence public opinion and shape public policy? This conversation is led by Ed Newton-Rex, CEO, Fairly Trained. Speakers: Tania Duarte, Founder, We and AI; Tim Squirrell, Head of Strategy, Foxglove; Sebastian Cuttill, Founder, Creative Rights in AI Coalition and Head of Parliamentary and Legislative Engagement, News Media Association; Simona Ciraolo, Author & Illustrator and Co-founder, We Are Better Than This

Info: Anna Ganley FRSA, CEO, Society of Authors, and Chair, Creators’ Rights Alliance

Event venue & nearby stays

Conway Hall, 25 Red Lion Square, London, United Kingdom

Concerts, fests, parties, meetups — all the happenings, one place.

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