A new licensing initiative may have implications for 3D model designs.
Creative Commons is the familiar non-profit organization that produces the known licensing models for digital content. Creators of text, image, or video assets can assign any of the “CC” licenses to their creations. The licenses provide legal ways to protect the asset in a way that allows the creator to choose the possible uses of the asset by others.
But now there’s another digital event coming: AI. AI is something everyone is gradually becoming more familiar with, but not everyone is aware of how AI becomes “smart”.
It’s done by training an AI model with examples of content. The model then “learns” what’s what, just as a child would learn by seeing repeated examples of things.
The issue is all about that training data. The Internet today is covered with content created by individuals and published for use by almost anyone. However, the structure of the Internet allows not only any individual to use the data, it also allows machines (read: AI training) to also use the data.
You’ve probably seen options in systems you use that ask you to select whether you’d like your data used for AI training. Sometimes you simply find a line in the fine print of the licensing terms saying that your data is going to be used (e.g. sold) for AI training.
Creative Commons wants to develop a licensing system that formalizes how all this works. Their new project, “CC Signals”, should resolve this. They explain:
“CC signals are a proposed framework to help content stewards express how they want their works used in AI training—emphasizing reciprocity, recognition, and sustainability in machine reuse. They aim to preserve open knowledge by encouraging responsible AI behavior without limiting innovation.”
At this point, it appears that Creative Commons has developed a proposed set of CC Signals for this purpose, but they have not yet been set in stone and released. They’re now looking for feedback.
While the intent of CC Signals definitely focuses on text, images, and videos that are posted to the Internet, I believe CC Signals might also be important for 3D models posted to the Internet.
Today, it is very possible for AI systems to slurp up all the 3D models on, say, Thingiverse, and perform training on them. Most 3D model repositories provide the data to the public without conditions, or the conditions deal with resale or other non-AI aspects.
CC Signals might be just what the online repositories need to simplify their role in AI training. Sites could add an option for uploaders to select which CC Signals license they wish to apply to their design.
We haven’t seen this yet, but I suspect it will become a feature of all major 3D model repositories once Creative Commons finalizes the licenses.
Via Creative Commons
