Artificial intelligence and creators’ rights
Round table hosted by Mira T. Sundara Rajan

As part of its current exhibition, Endless Variations, the Canadian Cultural Centre invites you to an evening dedicated to creators’ rights in the face of artificial intelligence, with AI experts, lawyers and artists. Held mainly in French with two presentations in English, this event highlights the vital contribution of France to the protection of artists.

• The discussion will be preceded by a presentation of Mira T. Sundara Rajan’s book The Moral Rights of Authors and Artists. From the Birth of Copyright to the Age of Artificial Intelligence. A new edition will soon be published by Oxford University Press.

The scale of the challenges posed by the development of AI in its most recent incarnations (Chat-GPT, DALL-E, and others…) cannot be overstated. They are emerging not just as potential supports for human productivity, but as innovations with the real potential to replace human beings in their most complex pursuits – even when these involve artistic creativity. What should we think of these statements? Should we accept them as new truths? Are they exaggerations that testify, above all, to the overweening pride of today’s technologists? And why do we persist in these assertions, rather than recognising that machines and human beings have intrinsically different capacities and qualities?

By looking to the traditions of French law, we can find ways of affirming the rights of creation as well as avenues for reflection on the major challenges of AI. Legal concepts exist to guide us towards new approaches to AI, enabling us to establish a positive and sustainable regulatory regime. These are copyright, and in particular the moral rights of creators: an original and important contribution of the heritage of French law to the world of technological innovation. How can this ancient doctrine help us to face the future? 

The evening will be hosted by Mira T. Sundara Rajan, Canadian author, professor of law, specialist consultant in copyright law, and host of Woman of Culture podcast, and will bring together a panel of distinguished guests:

• Maurice Benayoun, French media artist, Professor at School of Creative Media, City University of Hong Kong
• Alexandra Bensamoun, Professor of law, Université Paris-Saclay, member of the Interministerial Commission on Artificial Intelligence (France)
• Cédric Manara, PhD, Director and Head of Copyright, Google
• Alain Strowel, Professor of digital law at UCLouvain and attorney, Brussels
• Timothy Thomasson, Canadian digital artist working with moving images and emerging technologies

An event labelled “Festival de la francophonie”.