AI strategy for cultural and creative sectors

A plea to protect human creativity in the age of generative AI I am a professional independent artist and designer, and I am deeply concerned about what generative AI is doing to the cultural and creative sector. Artists are not only being replaced we are being dispossessed.

I do not see the massive spread of generative AI as a democratisation of creativity. On the contrary. The automated creation of ‘works of art’ devalues the process economically and makes it increasingly difficult for artists to make a living. The result is simply less, real, creative ‘output’. AI does not provide new or even creative impetus.

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* * AI to highlight the intangible value of culture * * Over the past few years, we have spoken a lot about what artificial intelligence can take away from art, culture and creativity, and much less about what this technology can bring. I think it is worth changing that question, or at least changing the approach to art and technology. Human creativity did not emerge from anything.

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AI and European Culture: From Digital Access to AIMediated Cultural Discovery Contribution to the European Commission’s Call for Evidence on an AI Strategy for the Cultural and Creative Sectors Carolina Fàbregas Hernández Independent researcher and cultural professional specialising in digital transformation, cultural marketing and audience development AI is changing more than the way culture is produced The debate…

Opening of the attached position paper · the full paper is on the Commission’s record (source link above)

As an art historian and art world professional, I understand AI as part of a broader digital transformation. Yet the debate is often reduced to outright support or rejection, threat narratives or promises of salvation.

Three recommendations, drafted so that they could be adopted in the Communication as they stand. None requires a new legal act: the first two sit within the Commission's powers as budget implementer, requiring nothing that Article 167(5) TFEU excludes; the third is delivered under Regulation (EU) 2024/1689. 1.

There is an urgent need for laws that protect us from theft of our property. It cannot be the case that anyone can pass by and use our copyright as if it were a gift cardboard on the street. It is about the survival of a huge industry and people are just comparing individuals who modify a work with image-text or sound-editing programs with machines that do this in seconds and quantities, as no ancestral person could…

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As a translator for video games and acquaintance of digital and traditional artists, I see the impact of generative AI on the cultural and creative sector, with "impact" being a very appropriate word as it is akin to an asteroid striking a precarious, but still fertile landscape and leaving a crater.

As an author, I categorically refer to AI in my work and that of others. The field of art and culture is that of humans only. I call for a drastic regulation of its use, both public and private, as it threatens our jobs and our humanity!

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The generative I.A. is a problem. We do not want it. We do not need it. We do not want data centers that destroy our beautiful landscapes. We do not want in-line images and posters that replace our graphic designers. We do not want soul-free music to replace our singers and musicians. We do not want a generated dubbing that replaces the emotions of a true comedy.

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As an illustrator, I see clearly how my entire sector is directly threatened by imaging AI. I hear more and more from colleagues that their contracts are now awarded to AI, simply because it is cheaper. Even long-standing customers start using AI instead of employing real people. The most tragic thing is that the data that these AI models use to create images has been stolen by artists from the outset.

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The proposed AI Strategy for the Cultural and Creative Sectors is timely and should retain its core principle that AI complements rather than replaces human creativity and agency. From a cultural heritage perspective, however, the strategy would benefit from extending this principle beyond creators and cultural organisations to the communities and knowledge custodians who sustain living and intangible heritage.

Since 2024 a number of commercial generative AI music creation platforms are available for people to access online within European Union. These platforms are offering a technology which can create a music like output (it is in fact binary code) produced using algorithms trained on existing music.

Generative AI is a nightmare for creative industries, among others theatre companies, as it is my case. It is based on the theft of artistic work, the failure to respect copyright and intellectual property, a phenomenal waste of resources in terms of both water and electricity, contributes to the ecological catastrophe we live in, enriches the multibillionaires of tech on the back of populations psychologically…

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Salzburg Global's Art & AI cohort welcomes the European Commissions initiative to develop an AI Strategy for the Cultural and Creative Sectors. Drawing on the outcomes of 'Creating Futures: Art and AI for Tomorrows Narratives', which convened 50 artists, technologists, policymakers, cultural leaders, researchers, and activists from 25+ countries, we urge the Commission to ensure that AI complements rather than…

I respond as an independent specialist journalist and publisher established in France, and from the perspective of a professional whose ability to create and publish original journalism depends directly upon the economic value of that work. I express my strongest possible objection to the direction in which this initiative appears to be heading.

AI companies are rapidly expanding into any and all fields they can in the hopes of becoming indispensably or so commonly integrated that they are impossible to dislodge. Meanwhile they are blatantly stealing material in order to produce their models. A particularly stinging like the libgen files, for which an individual received a harsh sentence, yet these companies apparently face no scrutiny whatsoever.

As Author, I could tell you about the dangerousness of AI for artists who are among the most precarious categories of people in the majority of European countries. I could tell you about my difficulty in filling my fridge since the arrival of AI. Feeding is only possible thanks to the support of my partner and social assistance.

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Generative AI in the creative sectors completely violates the copyright of all artists in any field who have ever published their works. Everything AI generates is thanks to the art, effort and creativity of real people. Moreover, if art is already a complicated sector to make a living, AI is the definition of unfair competition.

Filed in Spanish · English published by the European Commission

AI can enhance audience and cultural engagement across Europe by collecting, measuring and interpreting the data understanding the European data available. But therefore we need a data space to be able to share data and make it interoperable. It involves legal frameworks, collective and sovereign european infrastructure which can lead to metrics and better understanding.

CULTURAI (Horizon Europe, 2026-2030) responds to the European Commissions Call for Evidence on AI and the Cultural and Creative Sectors Drawing on the projects design: a harmonised survey of around 800 audiovisual and heritage professionals, comparative case studies and co-design Living Labs across Italy, the Netherlands, Croatia, Norway and the UK, our project CULTURAI makes six recommendations.

As a traditional artist and business owner with focus on sustainable and quality fabrics, never in a million years did I want to be forcefed, misled or even lied to about the treatment of my products. What good does GOTS and Oeko-tex even do if my fabric are tainted with sloppy AI imagery, that is taking someone else's livelihood, talent and uniqueness away and tainting our planet??

The position paper *Investing in Culture, Creativity and Artistic Research in the Next Multiannual Financial Framework*, drawing on PACESETTERS and S+T+ARTS EC(H)O, is connected to the European Commissions consultation on the forthcoming Artificial Intelligence Strategy for the Cultural and Creative Sectors because it addresses the conditions that will determine whether AI strengthens, rather than weakens, Europes…

Generative artificial intelligence drives the work of millions of artists (no respect for intellectual property), who receive no remuneration and find it increasingly difficult to find customers. It is therefore a certain economic loss, as we risk unemployment every day because of these tools.

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Hi, We've recently finished the first research on the use of AI for cultural communications, marketing and audience development in the cultural sector for Spain and Latin America, addressing three main artistic forms: music, the performing arts and museums and heritage.

It is clear, for example, that: I believe it is important for a European AI strategy for the cultural and creative sectors to discuss not only the opportunities offered by new technologies, but also the conditions under which they are created and deployed. AI can be a useful tool for creators, and I use it to support my work.

Filed in German · English published by the European Commission

The incorporation into the workflow of artificial intelligence and generative artificial intelligence in particular has had a threefold effect with regard to the translation and the writing and content creation industries. On the one hand, AI has transformed translation from an intellectually stimulating and rewarding creative career to an underpaid, under-appreciated exercise in drudgery.

I believe that cultural heritage (CH) should be seen not just as a sector that benefits from AI or provides valuable training data, but also as a domain of scientific knowledge with its own ways of working and specific needs. The Call for Evidence highlights the importance of fair access to high-quality data and points to the common European data space for CH as a key resource for AI training.

Sorry, I can't talk English. Because I'm Japanese. I will tell you about the problems with generative AI that are occurring in Japan. まず私は、生成AIは反対するべきと考えています。 〇生成AIの問題について 資源の大量消費、環境破壊、著作権侵害、個人情報の流通、プライバシーの侵害、フェイク画像によるポルノ被害、政治のプロバガンダ利用、戦争利用、企業による搾取構造...数えきれないほどの、多くの危険な問題を抱えています。 生成AIは、大量のデータを無断で搾取したうえで成り立っています。 生成AIに、知能はありません。大量に搾取したデータを利用し、企業の思惑に乗っ取って、ただ質問の答えを返す器械です。 〇日本の生成AIに対する状況…

I own a small self-employed company focusing on digital illustration and painting. AI has been nothing else but a giant problem - stealing our work, scamming left and right, and taking over job opportunities. The strategy should be to keep AI out of culture entirely, that'd be an excellent strategy.

AI and machine learning for tangible heritage. (copied from Matthias Rauterberg, Haiguang Chen, Francisco J. Gutierrez, Matthew Pike, Richard Rhodes, Maria Shehade, Jianjiang Wang & Sandra Woolley (15 Jul 2026): From Culture and Computing to Cultural Computing: A Scoping Review, International Journal of Human Computer Interaction, DOI: 10.1080/10447318.2026.2697345) AI and ML hold immense promise for advancing the…

The generative artificial intelligence effect applied to the cultural and entertainment sector is very negative: Destruction of jobs and know-how – Failure to respect intellectual property – Low quality, loss of diversity in creation – Ecological cost

Filed in French · English published by the European Commission

Generative AI is destroying my field of work, many Clients do no longer use Illustrators or Artists but rather funnel their money towards AI Companies that have trained their models by Illegally scraping Art and Data without consent and are now profitting barely hiding the fact that they are copyright washing stolen Art.

The spark starts with a person, not a mandate. AI is reshaping the world that students are entering. The question isn't whether they'll use it, it's whether they'll know how to think about it: how to understand, direct, question, and create with the technology shaping their world. Its the kind of thinking thats built on computer science, AI science, and data science. So, what's being done about it?

I come from a game development background, working on interactive and immersive content across education and entertainment. Myself I am experimenting a lot with AI as well, and try to find my way with it in my projects, without losing my creativity or control. For most of my projects I can scope a set of skills/boundaries the models stay in, allowing them to do what I want them to do without doing anything extra.

This is an absolutely terrible and catastrophic policy you should not enact it. Generative AI has absolutely no place in any creative work whatsoever. 1: it is built on stolen IP. There is no ethical use of this technology because it was built on the stolen works of every writer artist and musician who has ever had their work put online.

Artificial Intelligence should be left out of culture, and in general we need to limit it much at the societal level. The impacts of Artificial Intelligence are huge, starting with its Data Centres, which represent a huge amount of material resources (water, energy, minerals). It means more extractivism across the production chain around the world, meaning more extractivism and colonialism everywhere on the planet.

Filed in Spanish · English published by the European Commission

People are abusing AI. Jobs nowadays are basically retouch this AI-generated image. Most clients dont have much visual literacy, and they end up using AI that copies other artists work. Generative AI is leaving us without sustainable professional prospects. I understand AI being used in technology and science, but in art, I think its completely unjustified.

Generative AI exploits human creativity for corporate profit. It is using copyrighted work of artists, photographers and writers without our consent, which, in other terms, is blatant theft. As an artist myself I reject any notion that supports the exploitation of human craftsmanship. More so, this contradicts the climate conscious ideology that the EU seems to pride itself with.

I work in communication and graphic design. I find the use of AI a real scourge that destroys jobs, knowledge, skills and the environment. AI is mostly used in my industry and I find this a real problem. Managers and boss seek to replace their employees with AI for cost issues, closing jobs. Moreover, AI-made creations are an insult even to my profession.

Filed in French · English published by the European Commission

Speaking as a small art business, Generative AI is not only unethical, it is also deeply harmful to the creative culture and small artists everywhere. It takes jobs and opportunities from small artists, using data it has scraped that is not it's own.

Nothing can replace human creation. AI creates nothing, uses our creations to form a battle of ideas without any artistic, scientific or humanist value. It does not prevent bias. It does not advance artistic excellence. It doesn’t innovate. It is only a language model that writes (bad) emails.

Filed in Spanish · English published by the European Commission

Since 2011, KIKK has explored the intersections of art, science and technology: an international festival attracting tens of thousands of visitors each year, Le Pavillon (an exhibition venue dedicated to digital cultures), a creative hub (TRAKK), art-science-technology residencies, and the production and international touring of digital artworks.

I welcome this initiative and its recognition, grounded in Article 167 TFEU, that AI in the cultural and creative sectors (CCS) must serve human creativity and cultural diversity rather than the reverse. I am a cultural economist, formerly Senior Researcher at Istat (2010-2025), member of Eurostat's Expert Group on Culture Statistics, and, until May 2025, scientific co-director of the Istat-Ministry of Culture Task…

As an artist, I say generative AI has no place in creative fields. The entire technology is based on the theft of the entire internet's information, without asking for consent. Without the copyrighted works they have stolen, the tech would not function. The proponents of Gen AI say it is to democratise art, but all they have done is make is easier for people to copy our work and styles without paying us.

Hello, in my professional field (graphic design, corporate branding and illustration), AI has led to a significant reduction in the number of jobs I receive as a self-employed person. In particular, in the illustration, contracts have fallen to almost zero, which was still the main part of my contracts in 2023. At the same time, I cannot guarantee that old works will be used by me to train AI.

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I'm a professional concept artist and illustrator. I'm also autistic and chronically ill. At this point, I'm not able to work in gamedev anymore. Not only because of my health becoming worse from stress AI causes me, but because it's now impossible to find any job because of AI. Recruiters use AI systems that scan the CVs and in the end, no one gets hired.

AI can become a tool that expands and accelerates artistic exploration without replacing human creativity. In my own practice, my digital artworks are entirely created by me, without using AI to produce them. Yet, because they are digital artworks, there is often an immediate perception that they could have been generated by AI a perception that can be different from the way traditional painting is perceived.

Feedback from a cultural sector educator 1. AI must reinforce cultural diversity, not flatten it European culture thrives on plurality languages, narratives, micro traditions, minority voices. Any future strategy should ensure that AI systems are trained, evaluated, and deployed in ways that protect cultural nuance, not reduce it to generic outputs.

NOCTOCODE, informacijske tehnologije, d.o.o. is a company from Ljubljana, Slovenia, developing AI solutions for language technologies and accessibility. We work with the Intermunicipal Association of the Blind and Partially Sighted Nova Gorica and are in contact with the Union of the Blind and Partially Sighted of Slovenia.

A European Model for Digital Cultural Sovereignty Europe's cultural and creative sectors face a structural crisis in the digital space. According to IAB Europe's 2024 AdEx Benchmark Report, the European digital advertising market reached 118.9 billion in 2024 with social media alone growing by 23.9%.

BREEDBEELD is a Flemish organization that supports amateur/non-professional photographers, filmmakers and media artists. Millions of European citizens engage in some kind of creative activity in their spare time. From this perspective, it is very important that the Commission explicitly takes into account amateur arts/non-professional creators and active cultural participation when developing this strategy.

Human Provenance in Film (HPF) welcomes the Commissions objective of ensuring that AI complements rather than replaces human creativity. In the audiovisual sector, evaluating that objective requires better evidence about audience response to generative production. Existing audience data measures different things. Surveys can tell us what audiences say about particular uses of AI.

Associazione Italiana Turismo Enogastronomico (AITE) welcomes the initiative to develop an AI Strategy for the Cultural and Creative Sectors. Artificial intelligence is becoming not only a production tool but also a cultural intermediary that shapes what people discover, how heritage is interpreted and which places and communities receive attention.

YouthProAktiv welcomes the development of a dedicated European strategy on artificial intelligence for the cultural and creative sectors. AI is already changing the way cultural content is created, distributed and accessed, and it is important that Europe approaches this transformation in a way that supports innovation while protecting human creativity, cultural diversity and the rights of creators.

Developing and implementing an artificial intelligence strategy for the cultural and creative sector, as for any sector, requires a complete and multi-layered analysis of the sector itself and of the impact AI tools can have at multiple levels: the social impact on jobs and career trajectories, the environmental impact, and of course, the ethical impact.

I am responding as the founder of Voice Movement Immersion (VMI), an experiential methodology developed through more than 30 years of work across voice, music, movement, performance and facilitation. The question I keep coming back to is simple: as artificial intelligence becomes more capable, what human capacities do we need to strengthen alongside it?

My name is Jianming Yi, founder of MuVision, a German cultural technology company connecting cultural venues with an international audience. Our platform includes information on more than 22,000 museums in 22 countries and has attracted more than 10,000 users since launching just over one year ago. Our long-term ambition is to expand beyond museums and cover cultural venues throughout Europe.

Artificial Intelligence Strategy for the Cultural and Creative Sectors (Ares(2026)7389748) Submitted by: Association of the Deaf and Hard of Hearing in Czechia (ADH Czechia) Stakeholder type: Professional/sectoral association Country: Czech Republic Based on: ADH Czechia's position paper on the ethical use of AI with regard to Deaf and hard-of-hearing people in the Czech Republic (2026), attached in full as…

I am a professional multidisciplinary artist. As a comedy, director, singer, theatrical pedagogue, author and producer of the La mezcla theatre company, I am confronted with the issue of copyright and, more broadly, with the direct impact of the use of AI, in various ways.

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Submitted by Nord University (Norway) as coordinator of dialoguing@rts, a Horizon Europe project funded under HORIZON-CL2-2023-HERITAGE-01-07 (Grant Agreement No 101132352, https://dialoguingarts.eu). Eleven institutions across eight countries on three continents investigate how dialogic performing arts education fosters cultural literacy, social cohesion and inclusion.

I write from a curatorial practice built across European and Gulf institutions over the past decade, and I want to use this submission to name something the Call for Evidence leaves structurally absent: the curatorial function itself.

The European Commissions AI strategy for the cultural and creative sectors should look beyond generative AI and recognise a second, complementary category: "AI for cultural discovery, research and creative intelligence". Much of the current debate focuses on systems that generate new text, images, music or video.

Contribution by Sas Axokey ® This strategy represents an opportunity for Europe to promote AI that complements human creativity without being a substitute, protects the rights of creators and fosters responsible, competitive innovation that respects European cultural diversity.

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The initiative is very important and relevant. Missing in my opinion is the proper impact evaluation, and particularly digital impact KPI measurement showing the active demand in Europe for cultural heritage and related services including sovereign AI applications.

These sectors need to take part in more transdisciplinaire collabs and research and innovation projects/ programs. They are valuable but address to much solo and not in relation to tech and societal challenges. Involve them in AI related quadrupole helix innovation platforms and projects ( theory of change : quadrupole helix innovation needs mix collab between parties from government, knowledge institutes, end user…

I welcome the Commission's proposed AI Strategy for the Cultural and Creative Sectors and support the principle that AI should complement, rather than replace, human creativity. However, the analysis does not sufficiently address the structural power of technology companies, non-neutral choices embedded in AI systems, or the lack of enforceable responsibility for their behaviour.

We welcome this opportunity to contribute to an Artificial Intelligence Strategy for the Cultural and Creative Sectors under the Culture Compass for Europe. AI has the potential to support innovation across the sector, improve access to culture, strengthen diversity, and create new opportunities for creators, cultural organisations and audiences.

Provide meaningful and insightful feedback on the use of AI in 4000 characters? Might as well ask AI. 'AI' is not nearly what it is hyped up to be. But it does have merit. Sadly, it has destroyed the meaning of copyright, without a fight, and has already stolen the opportunity for many starting on the job market to meaningfully learn to become professional.

I am writing from South Africa, where I work as a creative strategist at one of Africas leading advertising agencies. I am also a writer and creative practitioner who has worked directly with AI-assisted image-making, animation, storytelling and strategy. From where I sit, AI is no longer a future conversation. It is already inside the creative process.

El modelo de desarrollo de la economía de las plataformas vivido durante los últimos 20 años -y utilizado para la integración de los sistemas de IAG en la actualidad- devalúa, en cuanto coste variable, el reconocimiento del trabajo de los creadores dentro de dicho modelo de negocio.

Being able to express ones opinion on how AI impacts the artistic and creative world means arguing ones point of view from ones own perspective. Mine is that of small organizations where talented individualsvery often young peoplecome together, individuals who need to be recognized and supported.

ANMIP represents Bulgaria's independent labels, publishers and producers. We write from the perspective of Southeast Europe (SEE) a region whose creative sectors face every AI-related risk identified by the Commission, but with a fraction of the defensive capacity of larger markets. We ask that the strategy explicitly address this regional dimension. SEE repertoire is doubly exposed.

I am deeply against the use of AI in the creative industries except in assistive or technical capacities such as cleaning up poorly recorded audio, sharpening blurry images or managing creative workflows. AI is a wonderful technology when it is used to detect early changes in cancerous cells, when it can help better regulate car traffic in cities, or where it is used to analyse sea water quality levels and make…

30 July 2026 European Commission Directorate-General for Education, Youth, Sport and Culture Public consultation: Artificial intelligence strategy for the cultural and creative sectors Human–AI Synergy in Europe’s Cultural and Creative Sectors IBEESS contribution to the European Commission’s call for evidence The Institute of Business Excellence, Entrepreneurship and Sustainable Systems (IBEESS) welcomes the…

Opening of the attached position paper · the full paper is on the Commission’s record (source link above)

I welcome this initiative and urge the Commission to ensure the Strategy explicitly covers cultural heritage and the GLAM sector (galleries, libraries, archives, museums and conservation). Debate on AI in the CCS is dominated by music, audiovisual and publishing, yet heritage institutions face distinct opportunities and risks that a creator and copyright lens does not capture. 1.

The proposed AI Strategy for the Cultural and Creative Sectors is timely and welcome. I particularly support its emphasis on human creativity, cultural and linguistic diversity, AI literacy, and collaboration between AI developers and the cultural and creative sectors.

Policy Recommendations 1. Support research on the long-term impact of AI on human creativity While significant attention has been devoted to the economic and legal implications of AI, comparatively little research has explored its long-term effects on human creativity, creative confidence, cognitive development and creative decision-making.