OK! Statement on the use of generative AI tools
The content of this portal was created by people with the help of AI tools.
The following applications were used in the creation: Midjourney, Kling, Veo, Elevenlabs, Magnific, ChatGPT and Gemini.
Ethical issues
Open Culture! is aware of the ethical problems associated with the use of current generative artificial intelligence tools.
In order to achieve quality results in image and video generation, it was necessary to train models on a huge amount of existing images and videos, many of which were probably not cleared for copyright.
Several lawsuits are underway worldwide in which copyright holders are suing development companies that economically profit from the results of the training process.
Open Culture! stands on the side of authors whose rights have been violated.
We believe that individual states, and especially their supranational unions (e.g., the EU), have a duty to regulate the legislative conditions for the operation of companies owning AI content generation models so that copyright law is upheld and the claims of authors of used works are fairly settled.
Context of Slovak culture
Open Culture! does not perceive any activities of the Ministry of Culture of the Slovak Republic in the process of setting fair conditions for the operation of generative AI tools.
On the contrary, this is a problem that, compared to other problems of Slovak culture, appears marginal.
The Ministry of Culture is destroying the independent cultural scene through its decisions, introducing political censorship, draining established organizations of personnel and finances, canceling events with long-standing traditions, limiting financial flows for the restoration of cultural heritage, wasting public funds on dubious activities and investments, and targeting sexual minorities through deliberate funding cuts.
Our resistance
The Open Culture! platform has been standing in resistance against these actions for almost two years, trying to stop them.
It uses various forms of civic tools, from commenting on proposed legislation, through open letters to political representatives, petitions, mass resignations, to public and creative protests and submissions to the prosecutor's office and courts.
The power of these gestures is still not enough. This is an asymmetric struggle in which the state, or rather the ministry with all its resources and executive power, stands against an activist movement built on volunteer work and crowdsourced, very limited financial resources.
In this continuing and exhausting struggle, we are constantly searching for new tools of resistance.
Generative artificial intelligence tools are another one of them.
The key factor is the ability of the results of these tools to reach mass audiences.
Open Culture! deploys artificial intelligence with the goal of bringing information about the devastating consequences of ministry political decisions to audiences that it normally fails to reach.
We use AI tools subversively, to chip away at power, not as a tool that would replace the work of living authors.
The Kultúra+ project pursues two goals
1 Informational
Through ironizing videos, we will spread information about the Ministry of Culture's scandals to an audience that did not previously register them.
2 Financial
The project calls on the public to support the ongoing resistance against the devastating actions of the Ministry of Culture with small financial contributions.
Open Culture! will use all funds obtained through the use of generative AI tools to defend the independence of culture in Slovakia.
Long-term goal
The long-term goal of Open Culture! is to act as a force from below that reflects and actively co-creates cultural policies in Slovakia.
One of the specific outcomes that are crucial from a long-term and supranational perspective is the protection of the artistic environment from the unfair impact of generative AI tools.
In order to advocate for this agenda, however, we need a partner at the state level with whom we can open this question.
Open Culture! does not excuse itself from using generative AI tools that were very likely trained unethically.
It takes the risk, walks the edge.
We stand against a force that is destroying the working and thus existential conditions of many of us, which is without doubt beyond all ethical boundaries.
We mean the current Ministry of Culture.
Under the same label, however, many imagine the owners of models who have built a business model on unethically acquired data, depriving thousands more authors of their work.
We are caught in a struggle in unclear terrain.
We do not rule out that we are making mistakes.