Companies that use artists’ work to train AI models should pay for it, the Dutch Council for Culture has said in advice to the government. Creators across the sector are reporting income losses as a direct result of the technology.

The council, which advises ministers on the arts and media, wants a legal “content levy” on generative AI providers operating on the Dutch market. The proceeds would go to creators and the cultural sector, distributed through collecting societies such as Buma/Stemra, with a government-run monitor tracking which data ends up in training sets.

Generative models can produce images, music and video in seconds in the style of human artists, trained on publicly available material – from photos on social media to artworks on creators’ own websites – usually without payment or consent.

It is one front in a wider Dutch debate over AI and copyright. In a survey late last year, one in five artists said they were losing income and commissions to AI.

Alongside the levy, the council wants the sector shielded from AI competition, public investment in human creativity, and a dedicated government commissioner for AI.

Not everyone in the arts is convinced. Constant Brinkman, co-founder of the AI-only Dead End Gallery and one of those consulted for the report, does not see a levy as the answer and told broadcaster NOS that AI can sit alongside traditional art rather than threaten it.

Other artists said they would rather their work be left out of AI training altogether than be paid for its use.

Charlotte Meindersma, a lawyer specialising in AI and copyright, said such an obligation is legally feasible but also said that deciding what creative data is actually worth to an AI model would be difficult.

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