TLDR: Over 30 prominent European artists have launched a video campaign, ‘Stay True To The Act,’ calling on EU policymakers to ensure the full and proper implementation of the EU AI Act. Their primary concern is to protect the cultural and creative sectors from the unauthorized use of their work by generative AI systems, emphasizing the need for strong copyright protection and transparent disclosure of AI training data.
Brussels, July 15, 2025 – A coalition of over 30 European artists, including renowned figures and emerging talents, has launched a unified video campaign today, urging European Union policymakers to uphold the foundational principles of the EU AI Act. The campaign, titled ‘Stay True To The Act,’ is a direct appeal to the European Commission to ensure the law’s original intent to protect creators from the unchecked exploitation of their work by generative artificial intelligence companies is fully realized.
The artists’ intervention highlights a critical push from rights holders for the European Commission to maintain stringent levels of copyright protection as the AI law is applied. A key demand revolves around the mandatory template that AI companies will be required to use to disclose a summary of the data utilized to train their AI technologies. This transparency is seen as crucial for creators to understand if their copyrighted works have been used without authorization.
Spanish singer-songwriter Álex Ubago, a participant in the campaign, emphasized the importance of the legislation, stating, ‘AI should protect music and those who create it.’ His sentiment was echoed by Justyna Steczkowska, Poland’s representative for Eurovision 2025, who articulated the artists’ fundamental right: ‘As artists we should have the right to know if our work has been used to train AI and the right to say that we simply do not want it.’ Steczkowska further pressed the Commission, adding, ‘The European Union has passed a law that is supposed to protect us and now we are asking the European Commission to simply implement it, simply to make it a fact.’
The EU AI Act, officially Regulation (EU) 2024/1689, represents the world’s first comprehensive legal framework for artificial intelligence. It was published in the Official Journal on July 12, 2024, and came into force on August 1, 2024. The Act’s overarching purpose is to foster human-centric and trustworthy AI, ensuring systems within the EU are safe, transparent, traceable, non-discriminatory, and environmentally friendly. While the Act’s full applicability is set for August 2, 2026, specific provisions are being phased in. Notably, the governance rules and obligations for general-purpose AI models, which are central to the artists’ concerns, are set to become applicable on August 2, 2025.
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Recital 107 of the Act specifically addresses the transparency of datasets used to train General Purpose AI (GPAI) models, requiring providers to make publicly available a ‘sufficiently detailed summary’ of the content used. This provision is welcomed by creatives and artists as it is intended to assist them in assessing whether their copyrighted works have been incorporated into AI training data. The artists’ campaign underscores the urgency for these provisions to be effectively and rigorously enforced to prevent the displacement of human creativity and to ensure fair remuneration and control over their intellectual property in the rapidly evolving landscape of generative AI.
