Towards a fair and transparent market for cultural and creative content in the era of generative AI

Expected Outcome:

Projects should contribute to all of the following expected outcomes:

• An in-depth analysis of the socio-economic dimensions and impacts of generative AI on the cultural and creative sectors and related societal implications. Particular attention should be paid to rights and remuneration of creators, diversity of cultural expression, audience perception, consumption patterns, market dynamics, value chains, royalty allocation and the effectiveness of copyright infrastructure.
• Scenarios, value chains, standards and robust, agile solutions to ensure transparency and trust in the generative AI supply chain are developed, aiming for a fair and transparent market for cultural and creative content. This includes: systems for content provenance detection of AI-generated and manipulated creative content; tools and infrastructure that reinforce rights management, creators’ consent, control, and fair compensation for the use of their works in AI training and generation; measures supporting the findability and discoverability of trustworthy cultural and creative content; mechanisms for the long-term preservation and stewardship of AI-generated creative works.
• Adaptive policy frameworks, recommendations, and solutions that embed cultural and ethical considerations in AI development for/with CCSI. These should ensure a fair and ethical market for cultural and creative content, products and services. Concrete solutions to address identified challenges and ensure equitable and sustainable creative economies, including agile mechanisms to ensure equitable value distribution, are proposed.
• A systemic innovation framework for sustainable CCSI is developed and validated. It enables agile experimentation, design, and testing of future-proof business models, that support compliance with ethical standards, legal requirements, and resource-efficient practices adaptable to market and technological changes.

Scope:

The impact of generative AI on the CCSI and society is complex and multifaceted^[1]. While it offers new possibilities, it also raises concerns, particularly regarding copyright, revenue models, employment patterns, and audience engagement. Understanding these socio-economic impacts, including how AI shifts the way the arts and culture are understood, created, practiced, and learnt, is crucial.

Generative AI can produce outputs potentially competing with human-created content. AI can also facilitate the manipulation of creative works, potentially infringing copyright or misleading users. Increasing transparency of AI generated or manipulated content may help to distinguish between human-created and machine-generated content and inform new practices for content dissemination and consumption.

Challenges related to the availability of quality data for AI applications and to the accuracy and reliability of cultural content should be investigated and addressed. In particular, the development of Generative AI technologies requires access to vast amounts of content that is often still protected by copyright. One of the challenges in this context is linked to the difficulty to identify copyrighted works, rightsholders and information on how their works may be used. The purpose of the insights gained is to inform novel practices for managing AI-generated content in cultural and creative fields, including the preservation of valuable outputs, such as artworks created by using AI, and to inform the establishment of adequate policy and legal frameworks and infrastructures.

Proposals should primarily address the following dimensions:

• Investigate and identify emerging trends, including through scenario analysis, and estimate the economic and social implications and impact of AI-generated outputs on the creative content market and related services, and on different actors and sectors, with a special focus on creators’ rights, earnings, allocation of royalties, as well as on diversity, inclusion, consumption and user perception of cultural products and services.
• Examine and propose policy and legal frameworks to ensure a sustainable and innovative creative sector in the age of AI.
• Propose standards and robust solutions to map the generative-AI supply chain, identify, trace and find trusted content, and ensure authenticity; tools for strengthening consent, control, rights management and compensation for the use of artistic and creative data in AI; suggest other measures to ensure a fair and transparent market for cultural and creative content, including solutions to increase the discoverability of trustworthy cultural and creative content, including copyright protected content that could be used for the AI training.
• Investigate new, efficient ways to redefine value creation and transformed business models. This includes looking at uncovering opportunities that support human creation, and increase profitability, while providing frameworks for the distribution of AI-generated and/or assisted creative content, and measures for long term preservation of valuable works created with the use of AI.
• Systemic and agile innovation: propose a validated framework to experiment, design, prototype and test new business models that can adapt to a rapidly evolving market, are resource efficient, and comply with ethical and regulatory frameworks.

By integrating these findings and insights, risks associated with generative AI can be mitigated and new positive prospects developed. Insights gained are expected to contribute to the EU’s global leadership in creativity and innovation.

Proposals should consider relevant policy initiatives, such as the AI Continent Action Plan and the envisaged AI dedicated strategy for the cultural and creative sectors^[2], and build upon existing research and innovation outcomes. Proposals selected under this call should collaborate and, if relevant, build upon the research developed by projects retained under call HORIZON-CL2-2025-01-HERITAGE-04.

[1] See, among others, JRC’sGenerative AI Outlook Report - Exploring the Intersection of Technology, Society and Policy,2025.

[2] Communication from the Commission to the European Parliament, the Council, the European Economic and Social Committee and the Committee of the Regions” AI Continent Action Plan” COM (2025) 165 final https://digital-strategy.ec.europa.eu/en/library/ai-continent-action-plan. Under the umbrella of the AI Continent Action Plan, the Apply AI strategy aims at boosting the use of AI in EU strategic industries, including the Cultural and Creative Sectors. The aAI Continent Action Plan also announces the preparation of a dedicated AI strategy for the cultural and creative sectors focused on ensuring that AI enables and reinforces human creativity and that it contributes to safeguarding European cultural and linguistic diversity.