{"slug": "ai-and-the-commons", "title": "AI and the Commons", "summary": "Creative Commons (CC) launched a global consultation effort, hosting workshops in New York, Boston, San Francisco, London, and Berlin, and announced a plan to develop tools and advocate for AI policies that protect the public interest and grow the commons, responding to creators' concerns about their content being used to develop AI without transparency. The organization aims to create a 'spectrum of participation' for AI, mirroring its earlier CC licenses, which have been applied to tens of billions of works, to rebalance power and infuse the AI ecosystem with reciprocity.", "body_md": "## Get the latest CC news, updates, events, resources, and more right to your inbox!\n\n[Sign up for CC’s Newsletter](https://mail.creativecommons.org/subscribe)\n\nAs a global leader in open licensing and copyright, we have long stood at the intersection of innovation in the public interest, creativity, and access to knowledge. With the rise of consumer-facing generative AI, which is changing the way people share and access knowledge online, it became clear: CC had to act—urgently, but with care.\n\nIn response, we launched a global consultation effort. We hosted workshops in New York, Boston, San Francisco, London, and Berlin. We attended conferences and convenings globally and tracked and engaged in the development of AI policy and legislation.\n\nA clear message emerged: many creators and communities feel uneasy about their content being used to develop AI without transparency and are seeking ways to regain agency. Our community has called on us to intervene with new tools that help rebalance power, ultimately infusing the AI ecosystem with reciprocity.\n\nThis moment mirrors another inflection point: the rise of the mainstream internet in the early 2000s. Back then, CC challenged the “all rights reserved” vs. “no rights reserved” binary by offering nuanced, practical tools for creators. The [CC licenses](https://creativecommons.org/share-your-work/cclicenses/) made it easy to share and have been applied to tens of billions of works on the internet, growing the creative commons and increasing access to knowledge.\n\nToday’s AI challenges call for similarly creative but practical solutions. Once again, sharing on the internet is being tested. Once again, the commons is at stake.\n\n*CC is striving to make sure that AI doesn’t lead to a more closed internet or reduce public access to knowledge and culture. *\n\nOnce again, Creative Commons is challenging the all-or-nothing binary to offer another way.\n\nThe AI landscape is complex. Our principled response to sharing in the age of AI is simple.\n\nAI is built on the commons. To serve the public interest, AI must help grow, not diminish, the commons, ensuring benefits are widely shared. We need a new social contract, anchored in reciprocity and a shared commitment to the commons. Here is our plan.\n\nOpen access through CC licenses created a spectrum of sharing. Today we need something similar for AI: a spectrum of participation, where creators and data-holding stewards are active participants in how knowledge is produced, shared, and used. CC is advancing several high-impact interventions as part of the CC signals framework to restore trust, strengthen participation, and embed public interest values into the AI knowledge ecosystem.\n\nWhile CC signals are designed to directly address the challenges raised by AI, CC licenses and public domain tools still have an important role to play. We are continually monitoring and helping to make sense of the complex relationship between AI, copyright, and the CC licenses.\n\n👉 Read more on [our analysis and guidance on training AI on CC-licensed content](https://creativecommons.org/using-cc-licensed-works-for-ai-training-2/).\n\nWe advocate for AI policies that protect the public interest and uphold the values of access to knowledge. We work with policy makers and other civil society organizations to ensure AI policy advances the public interest.\n\nRead our issue briefs on topics related to AI and the commons:\n\nThis is a shared challenge, and a shared opportunity.\n\nWhether you’re a funder, developer, policymaker, educator, platform operator, or creator, your participation matters.\n\nGet involved:\n\nChange takes all of us. Let’s build this future—together.", "url": "https://wpnews.pro/news/ai-and-the-commons", "canonical_source": "https://creativecommons.org/ai-and-the-commons/", "published_at": "2026-08-29 19:30:15+00:00", "updated_at": "2026-08-29 19:48:58.429345+00:00", "lang": "en", "topics": ["ai-policy", "ai-ethics"], "entities": ["Creative Commons"], "alternates": {"html": "https://wpnews.pro/news/ai-and-the-commons", "markdown": "https://wpnews.pro/news/ai-and-the-commons.md", "text": "https://wpnews.pro/news/ai-and-the-commons.txt", "jsonld": "https://wpnews.pro/news/ai-and-the-commons.jsonld"}}