[read this post in English >]

Tenemos un grupo increíble de personas preparadas para ser oradores principales en la Cumbre Global 2023, que se llevará a cabo del 3 al 6 de octubre en la Ciudad de México. En nuestros primeros anuncios, dimos la bienvenida a la escritora Anya Kamenetz y al líder de medios Māori Peter-Lucas Jones. Ahora nos sentimos profundamente honrados de anunciar que el discurso de apertura de la Cumbre estará a cargo de Marina Núñez Bespalova, Subsecretaría de Desarrollo Cultural de México, quien hablará sobre la cultura global desde la perspectiva profundamente arraigada de México y América Latina.

Marina Núñez Bespalova es subsecretaria de Desarrollo Cultural de la Secretaría de Cultura de México desde agosto de 2019. Doctorada en Filología Hispánica, Marina es editora y gestora cultural con casi dos décadas de servicio público en el sector cultural. Anteriormente ha sido Directora General de Publicaciones de Conaculta (el Consejo Nacional para la Cultura y las Artes), la Secretaría de Cultura y del Archivo General de la Nación, y estuvo a cargo de la concepción de la plataforma LibrosMéxico. También ha sido encargada del programa Salas de Lectura y del Plan Nacional de Lectura de 2016 a 2018, de la expansión de diversos programas infantiles y juveniles, así como de programas específicos sobre intervención cultural en situaciones de crisis y trabajo con población migrante, entre otros cargos públicos. Ha formado parte del grupo que promovió diversas iniciativas de ley en materia cultural. Ha sido docente en universidades globales en las que, además, ha tenido estancias de investigación, como la Queen Mary University of London, la Complutense de Madrid o la Sapienza de Roma. Recibió apoyos del Ministerio de Educación de España para realizar su tesis doctoral y participar en un grupo de investigación sobre la Edad Media y la cultura laica a través del mecenazgo. Ha participado ampliamente en foros nacionales e internacionales, ha enseñado numerosos cursos y seminarios y ha sido autora de obras en publicaciones académicas y literarias.

Al igual que Marina, todos nuestros oradores principales se conectan directamente con las áreas de enfoque de CC, desde la creatividad contemporánea y el patrimonio cultural hasta los medios, la ciencia, la educación y el periodismo. Con el tema de la Cumbre sobre la IA y los bienes comunes, también esperamos enfrentar el desafío de perspectivas nuevas y renacidas que deberíamos considerar al pensar en la inteligencia artificial y su intersección con el conocimiento y la cultura abiertos. Todas los oradores principales de la Cumbre honrarán tanto la ubicación de la Cumbre en México como el alcance global de la comunidad CC.

¡Estén atentos para conocer a nuestros otros oradores principales! Te invitamos a unirte a nosotros en la Cumbre en la Ciudad de México para escuchar hablar a Marina y muchas otras voces diversas. Nuestra esperanza es que los oradores principales, el programa completo de la Cumbre y nuestras conexiones informales en la Ciudad de México y en línea se combinen para permitirnos a todos cultivar la estrategia de CC de compartir mejor, un compartir que sea contextual, inclusivo, justo, equitativo, recíproco y sostenible.

Regístrese para la Cumbre Global CC >

The post Marina Núñez Bespalova Será una Oradora Principal en la Cumbre Mundial CC 2023 appeared first on Creative Commons.

[lee esta entrada en español >]

We have an incredible group of people lined up to be keynote speakers at the 2023 CC Global Summit, to be held 3–6 October in Mexico City. In our first announcements, we welcomed writer Anya Kamenetz and Māori media leader Peter-Lucas Jones. We are now deeply honored to announce that the Summit’s opening keynote will be from Marina Núñez Bespalova, Mexico’s Undersecretary of Cultural Development, speaking on global culture from the deeply rooted perspective of Mexico and Latin America.

Marina Núñez Bespalova is the undersecretary of Cultural Development in Mexico’s Ministry of Culture, starting in August 2019. With her doctorate in Spanish philology, Marina is an editor and cultural manager with almost two decades of public service in the cultural sector. She has previously been General Director of Publications of Conaculta (National Council for Culture and the Arts), the Ministry of Culture, and the National Archive, and was in charge of the conception of the platform LibrosMéxico. She also led the Reading Rooms program, the National Reading Plan from 2016 to 2018, and the expansion of various children and youth programs, as well as specific programs on cultural intervention in crisis situations and work with migrant populations, among other public charges. She has been part of the group that promotes various cultural law initiatives. She has been a teacher at global universities where she has also had research stays, such as the Queen Mary University of London, the Complutense of Madrid, and the Sapienza of Rome. She received support from the Spanish Ministry of Education to carry out her doctoral thesis and participate in a research group on the Middle Ages and secular culture through patronage. She has participated widely in national and international forums, taught many courses and seminars, and authored works in both academic and literary publications.

Like Marina, all our keynoters connect directly with CC’s areas of focus, from contemporary creativity and cultural heritage, to media, science, education, and journalism. With the Summit’s theme of AI and the commons, we also expect to be challenged with new and reborn perspectives that we should consider in thinking about artificial intelligence and its intersection with open knowledge and culture. All the Summit keynotes will honor both the Summit’s location in Mexico, and the CC community’s global scope.

We invite you to join us at the Summit in Mexico City to hear Marina and many other diverse voices speak. Our hope is that the keynote addresses, the full Summit program, and our informal connections in Mexico City and online will combine to enable us all to cultivate CC’s strategy of better sharing, sharing that is contextual, inclusive, just, equitable, reciprocal, and sustainable.

Register for the CC Global Summit >

The post Marina Núñez Bespalova to Keynote CC Global Summit 2023 appeared first on Creative Commons.

Today Creative Commons (CC) delivered a statement to the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) Conversation on Generative AI and Intellectual Property, as part of our engagement in global policy discussions around the important issues raised by these new technologies and their impact on creativity, the commons, and better sharing, i.e. sharing that is inclusive, equitable, reciprocal, and sustainable. In this blog post, we share the statement as delivered by Brigitte Vézina, CC’s Director of Policy and Open Culture.

Watch the video of CC’s remarks >

Thank you Chair for giving me the floor on behalf of Creative Commons, the organization behind the eponymous copyright licenses that have released more than 2,5 billion works into the commons to date.

At CC we know generative AI, without proper guardrails, runs the risk of being exploitative and damaging the commons, yet it also has the potential to enhance it like never before. This conundrum leaves us with many hard questions:

• How can creators be fairly rewarded for building our shared commons?
• How can we support the new forms of creativity enabled by AI?
• How do we support creators through these unprecedented technological developments?

In search of answers we held community consultations over the past months (including a symposium in New York City last week). As one would expect, we garnered a wide variety of views:

• Some creators are very concerned about AI and perceive it as a serious threat to their livelihood — at the same time many artists are relishing the new possibilities offered by AI as it pushes the boundaries of human creative expression and can make creativity more equitably accessible, for example, for people with disabilities. We just published an open letter from over 70 artists* who use generative AI to help surface their experiences and views.
• Some developers want unbridled freedom to build their model — but some are looking forward to working with opt-outs, i.e. respecting the wishes of creators who do not want to have their content trained upon, or to train on openly licensed content. We are already seeing efforts to help creators signal their preferences and norms and standards are emerging through community practice and portend fresh and innovative approaches.

In this context, WIPO should help develop norms and practices that are flexible and that will work to increase transparency and empower creators with choices that reflect their values and aspirations. WIPO should approach this with fairness and sustainability in mind — instead of promoting an expansion of copyright, it should ascertain its intrinsic balance and promote the commons on which all creativity depends. In particular, since all creativity builds on the past, copyright needs to continue to leave room for people to study, analyze and learn from previous works to create new ones, including by analyzing past works using automated means.

Mr. Chair, copyright is only one lens through which to consider generative AI. Copyright is a rather blunt tool that often leads to black-and-white solutions that fall short of harnessing all the diverse possibilities that generative AI offers for human creativity. Copyright is not a social safety net, an ethical framework, or a community governance mechanism — and yet we know that regulating generative AI needs to account for these important considerations if we want to support our large community of creators who want to contribute to enriching a commons that truly reflects the world’s diversity of creative expressions.

Thank you, Mr. Chair and to WIPO for hosting this important conversation.

Subscribe to CC’s email newsletter to stay informed about all our work with AI, culture and creativity, and more, and continue the discussion on AI and the commons at the CC Global Summit during 3–6 Oct 2023 in Mexico City.

* The Open Letter: Artists Using Generative AI Demand Seat at Table from US Congress is currently signed by over 180 artists and continues to add more.

The post CC Defends Better Sharing and the Commons in WIPO Conversation on Generative AI appeared first on Creative Commons.

Jennie says “one thing that I love about the internet is that it has allowed us to do things we weren’t able to in the past.” In this episode we learn about the differences between digital and physical collections and what it means to be open to the public online as well as in real life when the mission of the institution is to serve the public interest and share cultural heritage.

Open Culture VOICES is a series of short videos that highlight the benefits and barriers of open culture as well as inspiration and advice on the subject of opening up cultural heritage. Jennie Rose Halperin is the Director at the Library Futures project at NYU Engelberg.

Jennie responds to the following questions:

1. What are the main benefits of open GLAM?
2. What are the barriers?
3. Could you share something someone else told you that opened up your eyes and mind about open GLAM?
4. Do you have a personal message to those hesitating to open up collections?

Closed captions are available for this video, you can turn them on by clicking the CC icon at the bottom of the video. A red line will appear under the icon when closed captions have been enabled. Closed captions may be affected by Internet connectivity — if you experience a lag, we recommend watching the videos directly on YouTube.

Want to hear more insights from Open Culture experts from around the world? Watch more episodes of Open Culture VOICES here >>

The post Jennie Rose Halperin — Open Culture VOICES, Season 2 Episode 25 appeared first on Creative Commons.

This week, Creative Commons (CC) convened 100+ participants during two events in New York City to discuss the important issues surrounding generative artificial intelligence (AI), copyright, and creativity.

For many years, we at CC have been examining the interplay between copyright and generative AI, exploring ways in which this technology can foster creativity and better sharing, i.e. sharing that is inclusive, equitable, reciprocal, and sustainable — and it is through this lens that we strive to tackle some of the most critical questions regarding the potential of generative AI tools for creators, cultural heritage institutions, and the general public.

In search of answers we have been holding community consultations over the past months to consider how best to maximize the public benefits of AI, to address concerns with how AI systems are trained and used, and to probe how AI will affect the commons. These two NYC events come within the scope of these wider consultations aimed at assisting us in taking action with informed intention.

On 12 September, we ran a workshop at the offices of Morrison Foerster to unpack the multiple issues that arise once generative AI enters the creativity cycle. If all creativity remixes the past — which needs to be responsibly preserved and cared for — is generative AI a game changer? This was the question an interdisciplinary mix of participants approached with insight and empathy throughout the afternoon’s dynamic sessions. History teems with examples of how humans dealt with technological disruptions in the past (from the printing press and oil painting to photography), yet many participants pointed to the need to think differently and imagine new structures for AI to deliver on its promise to enhance the commons. Issues around attribution, bias, transparency, agency, artistic identity and intent, democratization of AI, and many others, peppered the discussions in small and large groups. While no definite pathways emerged, participants embraced the uncertainty and relished the prospect of generative AI being used for the common good.

The conversations flowed through the following day’s symposium, Generative AI and the Creativity Cycle, at the Engelberg Center at New York University. 100 participants attended the event, which brought together experts from various fields — including law, the arts, cultural heritage, and AI technology — speaking on seven panels covering a wide range of issues at the nexus of creativity, copyright, and generative AI.

Running like red threads across the panels, here are some of the key themes that surfaced throughout the day’s lively conversations:

• Transparency: This requirement was often cited as a precondition for society to build trust in generative AI. Transparency was deemed essential in the datasets, algorithms and models themselves, as well as in AI systems in general. Similarly, a focus on the ways users of AI content could be transparent about their processes was also needed. This tied closely to notions of attribution and recognizing machine input into creative processes.
• Attribution (or similar notions of recognition, credit, or acknowledgement): This feature reflects CC’s emphasis on better sharing: nurturing a fair and equitable sharing ecosystem that celebrates and connects creators.
• Bias: The problem of bias in AI models as well as the inequalities they perpetuate and compound came up in most if not all sessions. The imperative to address bias was raised alongside calls for greater diversity and inclusion, as is already undertaken in data decolonization efforts.
• Economic fairness: Several discussions pointed to a need for fair remuneration, distributive justice, and a universal basic income, as well as employment protection for creators.
• Copyright issues (both on the input/training and output levels): While some speakers suggested a sense of loss of control due to a lack of copyright-based permission or consent, others reiterated the fundamental right for anyone to read and absorb knowledge including through machine-automated means.
• A multi-pronged approach: Given the multifaceted nature of the challenges raised by generative AI, many speakers highlighted the need to engage on multiple levels to ensure responsible developments in AI. This tied in with the need for adequate incentives and support for open sharing, a sustainable open infrastructure, culture as a public good, sharing in the public interest, all in order to prevent further enclosures of the commons.
• Collaboration: Collaborative creation with machines as well as with other humans could give rise to a “remix culture 2.0,” where generative AI as a tool could assist in the emergence of new forms of creativity through “amalgamated imagination.”

Although the above summary does not do justice to the depth and thoughtfulness of the event’s discussions, it does give a flavor of the topics at stake and should help inform those thinking about AI development, regulation, and its role in supporting better sharing of knowledge and culture in our shared global commons.

A special thank you to our workshop participants and symposium speakers and moderators. We are grateful to have had the opportunity to connect with many of you and share diverse perspectives on this complex topic. We are grateful to Morrison Foerster for supporting the workshop, donating space and resources. We’d also like to thank our lead symposium sponsor Akin Gump as well as the Engelberg Center on Innovation Law & Policy for publicly hosting these important conversations.

A video recording of the entire symposium will be made available. Subscribe to CC’s email newsletter to stay informed about all our work with AI, culture and creativity, and more.

Continue the discussion on AI and the commons at the CC Global Summit during 3–6 Oct 2023 in Mexico City >

Check out these images from different panels during the symposium!

The post Generative AI and Creativity: New Considerations Emerge at CC Convenings appeared first on Creative Commons.