The boss of Mistral said the proceeds from the levy should go to Europe's cultural sector.
AI model giants should pay a content levy for selling their services in Europe with the money funnelled into Europe’s cultural sector, according to the boss of Europe’s leading AI model startup.
Arthur Mensch, the CEO and co-founder of Mistral, says such a levy would be a win-win for both the AI model providers, giving them legal certainty, and also creators, whose data the AI models are trained on, which would benefit from the levy.
AI model companies, which train their models on vast amounts of text, audio and video data, have been hit by complaints and legal challenges from creators and copyright owners.
In an op-ed in the Financial Times, Mensch writes that European AI model developers were at a disadvantage, operating under a “fragmented legal environment”, compared to AI developers in the US and China, who were “developing their models under permissive or non-existent copyright rules”.
He says that the current copyright rules for European creators were also not working.
Mensch says a “new approach” is needed, with his solution being a revenue-based levy, which would be levied on AI model companies which operate in Europe, “reflecting their use of content publicly available online”.
“Proceeds would flow into a central European fund dedicated to investing in new content creation and supporting Europe’s cultural sectors”, he says.
According to one report, Mensch is calling for a contribution between one and five per cent of the revenues of AI model providers in Europe. This was not confirmed by Mistral.
Mensch writes: “At Mistral, we are proposing a revenue-based levy that would be applied to all commercial providers placing AI models on the market or putting them into service in Europe, reflecting their use of content publicly available online.
“Crucially, this levy would apply equally to providers based abroad, creating a level playing field within the European market and ensuring that foreign AI companies also contribute when they operate here.
“The proceeds would flow into a central European fund dedicated to investing in new content creation, and supporting Europe’s cultural sectors. In return, AI developers would gain what they urgently need: legal certainty.
“The mechanism would shield AI providers from liability for training on materials accessible online. Importantly, it would not replace licensing agreements or the freedom to contract.
“On the contrary, licensing opportunities should continue to develop and expand for usage beyond training. The fund would complement, not crowd out, direct relationships between creators and AI companies.”
Under the EU’s current rules, AI companies can use copyrighted materials for text and data mining, including AI training, unless a creator has “reserved their rights”. The EU is looking into a permanent solution to protect copyright from use by AI.