A. I. Watch: Protecting Creative Rights

On December 11, the White House issued the following executive order: “Ensuring a National Policy Framework for Artificial Intelligence”. This order states the current administration’s goal to remove barriers to the development of AI in the United States, but without indication of concern about the its effects on workers of any industry. The order goes further: state governments are also ordered to maintain policy which conform to this order, through their own laws and administration . The order continues by describing various ways that the federal government may leverage its power force states to comply. The Executive Order on AI is available on the White House website.

In response, International President Tino Gagliardi issued a statement on behalf of the AFM observing that the order “directs the Trump Administration to work with Congress to ‘…ensure that children are protected, censorship is prevented, copyrights are respected, and communities are safeguarded.'” But Gagliardi continues, “What follows is incongruous with that premise. This EO is nothing more than a rehashing of a deeply unpopular and misguided set of half-baked policies. Congress overwhelmingly rejected this very idea. Absent strong federal safeguards, states must be permitted to protect our communities.” Last July Congress passed with a 99-1 vote for the amendment to its “Big Beautiful Bill” which eliminated the bill’s ban on AI regulation, a result of the collective efforts of the AFM and the many concerned stakeholders across the US.

At present, the following bipartisan efforts at federal legislation have been introduced to create safeguards for creative rights.  The AFM supports the Transparency and Responsibility for Artificial Intelligence Networks Act of 2025 (The TRAIN Act) and the reintroduction of the Generative AI Copyright Disclosure Act of 2024, both to create transparency in how copyrighted works are used to train generative AI models. The AFM is also in favor of Sen. Hawley’s and Sen. Blumenthal’s bill, creating a right of creators to sue AI companies when they have engaged in copyright infringement. There is also work for a bipartisan and bicameral reintroduction of the Protect Working Musicians Act, which among other things would create a path for independent artists to collectively negotiate with the AI developers and streaming platforms.