GEMA CEO AI

Photo Credit: GEMA (Dr. Tobias Holzmüller)

The German Society for Musical Performing & Mechanical Reproduction Rights (GEMA) CEO Dr. Tobias Holzmüller says transparency should be a basic requirement of Europe’s approach to “smart regulation” for AI. Here’s the latest.

During a recent discussion event in Brussels, GEMA hosted a panel to ask what the EU can do to ensure that human creativity and cultural diversity still have a future in the age of streaming and generative AI. GEMA CEO Dr. Tobias Holzmüller called for a joint effort to make Europe a place where human creative effort is appropriately valued. “Artificial intelligence can support the creative process, but it must not lead to human creativity being replaced or exploited,” he told attendees.

“GEMA is advocating smart regulation that creates transparency, effectively protects intellectual property rights, and enables fair and legally compliant AI.”

Dr. Tobias Holzmüller has welcomed the European Parliament’s position on the AI Act and the proposals from the Presidency of the Council of the EU. “Nobody would understand if the AI Act were to fail in the end due to an issue such as transparency, which should actually be a basic requirement,” Holzmüller explained. “Anyone offering generative AI in Europe must be able to explain what information was used to train it.”

“AI is not only a challenge but also an opportunity for the music sector,” Deputy Director-General of the European Commission’s DG CNECT, Renate Nikolay shared with the panel. They also discussed how to deal with training data and respect existing copyright law, which includes a right to opt-out of training models. But also it must be ensured that the use of generative AI doesn’t make opting out impossible.

GEMA represents the copyrights of around 90,000 members in Germany—including composers, lyricists, and music publishers. It also represents two million rights holders from all across the globe, making it one of the world’s largest authors’ societies for musical works.