Generative AI is disrupting creative communities, here’s how they are fighting back
KIRILL KUDRYAVTSEV/AFP via Getty Images
(NEW YORK) — Generative artificial intelligence companies capable of generating creative content are also said to be disrupting the livelihoods of creatives around the world, according to a group of creatives speaking out publicly about the issue.
“The unlicensed use of creative works for training generative AI is a major, unjust threat to the livelihoods of the people behind those works, and must not be permitted, a ” statement signed by 11,500 actors, musicians, authors, photographers, and composers from across the world, read.
Julianne Moore, Kevin Bacon, Thom Yorke and Abba’s Björn Ulvaeus, are among the tens of thousands of creatives who have signed this open letter calling for these companies to stop indiscriminately training on content they say should be licensed.
“This is a major issue for many of the artists, musicians, actors, authors, and other creators whose work is being exploited by AI companies,” said Ed Newton-Rex, a former AI executive who released the statement.
As a former head of audio at Stability AI, Newton-Rex is well acquainted with the internal data training practices of generative AI companies. He resigned over the company’s belief that training their AI models on copyrighted content without licensing it constitutes “fair use.”
Generative AI models have generally scrapped as much content as they could from the internet, downloaded it and trained their model to be able to create new work that is in the style of the work it trained on, Newton-Rex told ABC News.
“None of this revenue is coming back to the original artists,” explained Overlai founder Luke Neumann in a blog post about his new mobile app which aims to protect photography in the age of AI.
Neumann, who also signed the letter, launched the free app Overlai with world-renowned photographers Paul Nicklen and Cristina Mittermeier, when they noticed text-to-image generators could easily replicate the unique styles of both photographers. And, Neumann stresses the amount of work that goes into conservationist photography – the cost of travel and spending weeks, sometimes months in a location documenting a delicate ecosystem.
“I think AI companies really need to think long and hard about like how long they’re going to need organic data and if they want to be messing with these fragile business models of the people out there capturing this stuff,” Neumann to ABC News.
Several lawsuits from creatives ranging from writers to musicians to comedians have piled up against some of the biggest generative AI companies for copyright infringement.
(WASHINGTON) — The Rainbow Youth Project, a national LGBTQ advocacy group, typically fields about 800 calls a month on its crisis outreach hotline. In just 10 days, as the 2024 presidential election came to a head, the organization told ABC News it received roughly 5,400.
Organizers say they were prepared for calls to spike given that the LGBTQ community — and specifically the transgender population — has been a subject of debate in this election cycle. But they weren’t prepared for the overwhelming call volume.
Some callers had to wait on hold over the weekend for operators — something they’ve never had to do before, Executive Director Lance Preston said in an interview. Callers weren’t just from the LGBTQ residents in need themselves; Preston’s staff were fielding calls from parents, grandparents, teachers, pastors and others asking how they can help their community members.
“I think it’s been a wake-up call for a lot of people,” Preston said in an interview.
The Rainbow Youth Project is not alone; LGBTQ hotlines nationwide are seeing massive surges amid the fallout of the election, as LGBTQ Americans and their loved ones search for answers, reassurance and guidance about future LGBTQ rights in America.
The Trevor Project, an LGBTQ youth suicide prevention organization, said it saw an overall crisis outreach volume increase of nearly 700% on Nov. 6, compared to the weeks prior.
“It’s just a general sense of fear, a sense of panic from young people who are reaching out; youth reporting feeling hopeless or helpless about what’s to come,” said Mandy Paul, a senior manager of crisis services at the Trevor Project. She listened to concerns about anti-LGBTQ discrimination, the fate of transgender health care access, and whether LGBTQ policies in Project 2025 — a conservative presidential wish list — would be implemented.
The LGBT National Hotline, another crisis outreach center, told ABC News it has received five times the typical call volume: “It’s been all hands on deck. Here, it is coming from all over the country. However, we are definitely seeing more calls coming from red states, though it’s not a huge amount more than blue states. The fear is from all over the country. It is all ages,” said Aaron Almanza, the program’s executive director.
The Rainbow Youth Project found that typically about 19% of its callers will screen positive for suicidal ideation. Now, for the month of November, that’s up to 31.6% of callers screening for acute mental health crisis with a specific notation of suicidal ideation.
As communities process what the recent elections mean for themselves and their loved ones, counselors and operators urge those who are feeling lonely, confused, helpless or scared to reach out to community members who can be supportive during this time — even if that support is from an LGBTQ hotline. Organizations say they often field calls from rural areas with less local in-person resources like LGBTQ advocacy groups.
“Right now we need to find each other, because that local support is going to be hugely important for us to move forward,” said Almanza.
Paul, who has been at the Trevor Project for six years, found that youth just “want to be heard and supported,” and has called upon allies to be a source for LGBTQ residents during this time.
“We hear that time and time again — it’s just wanting a place where they can share their fears, share, maybe the first time they’re sharing what their identities are in a place that they feel safe to do so.”
Preston encourages those who are experiencing despair to focus on the progress the LGBTQ community has made in recent years. A 2020 Pew Research Center study found that 72% of Americans believe homosexuality should be accepted, compared with just 49% in 2007. Additionally, Pew found that 64% of Americans favor laws that protect transgender individuals from discrimination in jobs, housing and public spaces.
As a gay man who came out in the ’80s amid the fight for anti-employment discrimination policies and marriage equality, Preston notes the amount of progress that LGBTQ advocates have lobbied for in recent years: “We’ve been there. We know how to do this. We’re going to be your voice if you can’t be your own voice.”
States nationwide have seen an increase in legislation and political rhetoric related to the LGBTQ community in recent years. In the 2024 legislative session, the American Civil Liberties Union tracked a record-breaking 532 anti-LGBTQ bills in state legislatures — only about 46 of those have passed into law, with roughly 351 bills defeated.
Some of the most prominent legislative proposals included restrictions on transgender youth health care, trans participation in sports, pronoun changes in schools and classroom content on gender and sex. President-elect Donald Trump has said he will embrace these restrictions during his presidency, calling it “transgender insanity” and declaring that gender is “determined at birth” in his Agenda47 policy proposals focused on schools.
Critics of this legislation said the rhetoric and legislative attacks will increase discrimination facing a small, marginalized community.
“I also want our LGBT+ youth to know that there are millions and millions of people fighting for their right to survive and thrive, and there is an expansive community of LGBTQ+ folks and allies who are shoulder to shoulder with them, and we simply will not give up,” said Trevor Project CEO Jaymes Black.
If you are struggling with thoughts of suicide or worried about a friend or loved one, call or text the Suicide & Crisis Lifeline at 988 for free, confidential emotional support 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
(PHILADELPHIA) — U.S. Marshals are on the hunt for a man they say killed a 29-year-old woman and then buried her body in a shallow grave, according to authorities.
The U.S. Marshals Service Eastern Pennsylvania Violent Crime Fugitive Task Force is asking for the public’s assistance in locating 29-year-old Geovanni Otero, who authorities say a warrant for murder out for his arrest, according to a statement from the U.S. Marshals on Monday.
“On November 27, a warrant murder and related charges was issued by the Philadelphia Police Department and Otero is also wanted for violation of his Pennsylvania State Parole. Otetro is charged with killing 29-year-old Melody Rivera in early November,” the U.S. Marshals said. “Her body was found in a shallow grave in the 900 block of Tustin Road in Philadelphia’s Fox Chase section of the city.”
Otero is approximately 5-foot-10 inches tall and weighs 175 pounds, officials said. He has black hair, brown eyes and tattoos covering the top of both hands as well as a tattoo of a dagger behind his left ear, police said. His last known address was in the 5800 block of N. Park Avenue in Philadelphia.
The U.S. Marshals Service is offering a $5,000 reward for information leading to Otero’s arrest and authorities say the reward will be “processed immediately upon arrest and not upon conviction.”
“Geovanni Otero is officially charged with the homicide of Melody Rivera. We are hoping the public can provide information that will assit us in removing this lifelong criminal from society,” said Supervisory Deputy U.S. Marshal Robert Clark.
The U.S. Marshals Service Violent Crimes Fugitive Task Force is the lead investigative agency tasked with apprehending Otero for the murder and state parole warrants.
(NEW YORK) — A University of Pennsylvania graduate has been charged with murder in the targeted attack of Brian Thompson, the CEO of major insurance group UnitedHealthcare who was fatally shot outside a Midtown Manhattan hotel ahead of an investor conference, according to the NYPD.
Luigi Mangione was charged in the fatal shooting after he was arrested Monday in Altoona, Pennsylvania, after an individual at a McDonald’s recognized him from the wildly circulated images of the suspect sought in the shooting.
Mangione faces charges in New York and Pennsylvania
Mangione faces second-degree murder, possession of a loaded firearm, possession of a forged instrument and criminal possession of a weapon charges in New York, according to according to an online court docket.
The Manhattan District Attorney’s office confirmed the charges.
The forged instrument is the fake NJ driver’s license he allegedly used to check into the hostel on the Upper West Side.
Mangione remains in the custody of the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections pending his extradition to New York.
Mangione, 26, was initially identified as a “strong” person of interest in the shooting death after he was apprehended at the McDonald’s in Pennsylvania, New York City Mayor Eric Adams said during a press briefing in New York on Monday.
Mangione was eating at the McDonald’s Monday morning when an individual thought he looked suspiciously like the shooting suspect and alerted an employee, who called police, authorities said.
He was carrying a firearm and suppressor “both consistent with the weapon used in the murder,” NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch said during the press briefing earlier Monday. The gun “may have been made on a 3D printer,” police said.
He also had “multiple fraudulent IDs,” including a fake New Jersey ID matching the ID the suspect used to check into his New York City hostel before the shooting incident, Tisch said. He was carrying a U.S. passport that identified him as Luigi Mangione, police said.
Police also recovered clothing, including a mask consistent with those worn by the wanted individual, as well as a three-page “handwritten document that speaks to both his motivation and mindset,” she said.
He was in possession of a ghost gun capable of firing a 9mm round and will face gun charges in Altoona, NYPD Chief of Detectives Joseph Kenny told reporters during the briefing earlier Monday.
He has been charged in Pennsylvania with five crimes, including carrying a gun without a license, forgery, falsely identifying himself to authorities and possessing “instruments of crime,” according to a criminal complaint.
The charging document alleges that Mangione lied about his identity to police and carried the ghost gun without a license.
When Altoona police asked him if he had ever been to New York City, Mangione started shaking, according to the charging document. He didn’t answer the question directly, police said.
Police said they are working to develop a full sense of his timeline in Pennsylvania and how long he has been in Altoona.
The NYPD sent detectives to Altoona to interview him and are going through the recovered writings and his social media, police said.
“It does seem that he had some ill will toward corporate America,” Kenny said.
A Goodreads account that appears to belong to Mangione left a four-star review on Ted Kaczynski’s “Industrial Society and Its Future” — more commonly known as the “Unabomber manifesto” — and described Kaczynski as “a violent individual — rightfully imprisoned — who maimed innocent people. While these actions tend to be characterized as those of a crazy Luddite, however, they are more accurately seen as those of an extreme political revolutionary.”
As investigators sift through Luigi Mangione’s online activity, they are examining multiple social media posts that suggest he may have suffered a major back injury including a photo of an x-ray of a spine posted on X and at least two books about back injuries on his Goodreads profile.
A source confirmed to ABC News that the Goodreads account is part of the law enforcement investigation.
Mangione has ties to San Francisco and his last known address was in Honolulu, Kenny said. In November 2023, Mangione was arrested in Honolulu for trespassing in a Hawaii State Park, court records show. He pleaded no contest and was ordered to pay a $100 fine.
He has no prior arrest history in New York, Kenny said.
Mangione was born and raised in Maryland, Kenny said.
Following his arrest on Monday, the Mangione family released a statement saying, “Our family is shocked and devastated by Luigi’s arrest.”
“We offer our prayers to the family of Brian Thompson and we ask people to pray for all involved,” Maryland Republican Delegate Nino Mangione, who represents parts of Baltimore County, wrote on X on behalf of the family.
Luigi is a 2016 graduate of the Gilman School, a private high school in Baltimore, where he was the valedictorian of his graduating class, according to the school’s website. The school said in a statement that Mangione’s “suspected involvement in this case is deeply distressing news on top of an already awful situation.”
“Our hearts go out to everyone affected. Here on campus, our focus will remain on caring for and educating our students,” the statement continued.
Mangione is a May 2020 graduate of the University of Pennsylvania, according to a school spokesperson. He studied computer science and earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees in engineering from the Ivy League institution.
Following his graduation, Mangione worked as a data engineer at online car marketplace TrueCar, Inc. beginning in November 2020, according to a LinkedIn account that appears to belong to Mangione.
A representative for TrueCar said that Mangione stopped working for TrueCar in 2023.
A classmate who graduated from Gilman with Mangione, told ABC News that “he is the last person I expected to be involved in something like this.”
“He was an incredibly intelligent, humble and kind person,” the classmate said. “He seemed like a very bright guy with a bright future.”
About six months ago, the classmate said he was notified by other classmates that Mangione’s family was “inquiring about his whereabouts.”
“I didn’t hear anything about him until today when all the news dropped,” they said. “It really sucks for his family, who must be going through it right now.”
The Mangione family released a statement saying, “unfortunately, we cannot comment on news reports regarding Luigi Mangione. We only know what we have read in the media. Our family is shocked and devastated by Luigi’s arrest. We offer our prayers to the family of Brian Thompson and we ask people to pray for all involved. We are devastated by this news.”
New photos of suspect released
Police have said the suspect appeared to be lying in wait outside the Hilton hotel on Wednesday in what they said was a “premeditated” attack. The shooter arrived at the scene about five minutes before Thompson before shooting the victim in the chest around 6:40 a.m., police said. The suspect is believed to have left New York City following the shooting, police said.
NYPD officials released new images this weekend of the suspect being sought in the shooting in the back of a taxi, where he could be seen peering through the open slider in the partition between the seats.
Another photo appeared to show the man walking by the window of a cab.
Backpack contained Monopoly money
Police found a backpack believed to belong to the suspected shooter in Central Park on Friday evening, police sources told ABC News. The backpack contained fake money from the game Monopoly and a Tommy Hilfiger jacket, sources said.
The backpack was found after NYPD deployed an army of officers and drones to conduct a grid search, police sources said earlier.
As of Saturday, three days after the shooting, sources close to the investigation told ABC News the New York Police Department is making progress toward identifying the gunman but, as of now, still has not done so.
On Friday, police said they believed the gunman left New York City following the shooting — ditching his bike on the Upper West Side and taking a taxi to a Port Authority bus facility at 178th Street. Police said they believe he boarded a bus there because they did not see him on video leaving the facility.
Suspect stayed at hostel
The NYPD released on Thursday new photos of the suspect, seen without a mask, while asking for the public’s help in identifying him. The images were taken from a surveillance camera at the HI New York City Hostel on Manhattan’s Upper West Side. Police had obtained a warrant to search after coming to believe the suspect stayed there, sources told ABC News.
Police were able to find an image of the suspect without his face mask because he was flirting with the woman who checked him into the hostel, police sources told ABC News.
As he stood at the check-in desk, the sources said the woman asked to see his smile. The suspected shooter obliged, pulling down his mask long enough for the surveillance camera to capture his face.
It appears the suspect shared a room with two other men, according to police sources.
The suspect likely checked into the hostel on Nov. 24, checked out and then checked back in again on Nov. 30, according to sources. It’s not clear when the surveillance image was captured.
The suspected shooter checked into the hostel using a New Jersey license that wasn’t his own, according to police sources. Detectives ran the name and found it did not resemble any known photos of the suspect or other evidence amassed so far, the sources said.
Suspect arrived in NYC 10 days before shooting: Sources
The suspect came to New York City on Nov. 24 on a Greyhound bus, when a surveillance camera at Port Authority Bus Terminal caught his arrival at 9 p.m., law enforcement sources told ABC News.
The inbound bus originated in Atlanta but it was not immediately clear where the suspect boarded. The sources said he was spotted on board in Washington, D.C., so he boarded there or somewhere between D.C. and Atlanta.
Both Greyhound and the parent company of the hostel, Hostelling International USA, said in a statement that they are “fully cooperating with the NYPD” but cannot comment further due to the active investigation.
The 10-day period has been the focus of investigative efforts. Police have collected a lot of video of the suspect all over the city — in the subway, in cabs, in a McDonald’s, according to sources. Each place he paid with cash and he made sure to keep his mask on, according to sources.
Whereabouts day of the shooting
Police have released photos of the suspect in a mask, captured at a Starbucks near the hotel before the shooting, according to New York ABC station WABC. He was described by police as wearing a light brown or cream-colored jacket, a black face mask, black and white sneakers and a “very distinctive” gray backpack.
Sources told ABC News the suspected shooter was also seen on video much earlier, at 5 a.m. the day of the shooting, near the hostel carrying what appears to be an e-bike battery.
New cleared CCTV video shows a man who appears to be the suspect walking west on 55th Street at 6:19 a.m. The video shows him stoop down as he appears to momentarily drop an object on the garbage before continuing to walk.
Writing discovered on shell casings
Detectives later discovered writing on the shell casings found at the scene where Thompson was gunned down, police sources told ABC News.
Detectives were working to determine whether the words were meant as a message from the shooter and a hint at his motive.
Written on the shell casings were the words “deny,” “defend” and “depose,” according to sources.
Other evidence: cellphone, water bottle, candy wrapper
After the shooting, the suspect fled on foot into an alley, where a phone was recovered, according to Kenny. He then fled on an e-bike and he was last seen riding into Central Park at 6:48 a.m., police said.
Police released photos of the suspect holding a firearm and on a bike.
Detectives have also retrieved a water bottle and candy wrapper from the area where he was apparently waiting, law enforcement sources said. After analysis, NYPD investigators believe the cellphone, candy wrapper and water bottle are linked to the shooter, police sources said.
Investigators believe they were able to score DNA samples from several pieces of the evidence, law enforcement sources told ABC News on Friday. The samples are currently at the NYC Office of the Chief Medical Examiner to be run through databases for a possible match, the sources said. That process could take a couple days.
At the same time, NYPD detectives are working with the U.S. Marshals Service to try and track down the shooter along with the FBI, which has the most sophisticated technology for retrieving usable data from cellphones, sources said.
Professional killer appears unlikely
The victim’s hotel room has already been accessed by investigators, whose top priority is determining Thompson’s most recent conversations and movements, sources said.
The working theory among detectives right now is that the shooting was carried out by someone who is not a professional killer because too many “mistakes” were made, sources said. Hitmen typically don’t carry cell phones to their hits and the shots were fired from a distance that would be considered “too far” away from the victim, the sources said.
At this point, detectives are trying to determine whether Thompson was targeted because of some type of personal conflict or as a result of his work as an insurance executive, sources said. The killer apparently had some knowledge of Thompson’s schedule on Wednesday and the fact that he would be arriving at the Hilton well before the company meeting was to begin, the sources said.
Police are interviewing Thompson’s colleagues and family about any potential specific threats, Kenny said.
What we know about the victim
Thompson, 50, was in New York City for the UnitedHealthcare investors conference, which was scheduled to start at 8 a.m. The conference was being held at the Hilton outside of which he was shot, but he was not staying there, police said.
UnitedHealthcare’s parent company, UnitedHealth Group, the largest health insurer in the world, said in a statement, “We are deeply saddened and shocked at the passing of our dear friend and colleague Brian Thompson.”
“Brian was a highly respected colleague and friend to all who worked with him,” the company said. “We are working closely with the New York Police Department and ask for your patience and understanding during this difficult time. Our hearts go out to Brian’s family and all who were close to him.”
This story has been updated.
ABC News’ Peter Charalambous, Madison Burinsky, Kate Holland, Chris Looft and Sabina Ghebremedhin contributed to this report.
