Furious at government complicity in supporting the theft of art, authorship and comic storytelling by morally dubious big tech AI companies, a group of children’s authors and illustrators have launched the “We Are Better Than This” campaign – a “creative uprising” against the emergent technology.
“As illustrators and artists our work is being stolen and used against us.” say the campaign’s founders in a joint statement – authors and illustrators Chris Haughton, Momoko Abe, Ged Adamson, Simona Ciraolo and Benji Davies.
“The tech companies aren’t just coming for our livelihoods, they are changing the future of creativity. It’s not innovation, it’s theft! The Government are protecting Big Tech instead of the people. That’s why we must take action. When we come together we can safeguard our creativity and shape a better future.”
You can sign up for their campaign here, which is fronted by a short film voiced by actor Miriam Margolyes, with music and sound by Matt Wand, written, designed and directed by Chris Haughton, with support from Association of Illustrators, Society of Authors and the Good Ship Illustration. You can also watch the video on Chris’s Substack.
The video is being used to promote a “We Are Better Than This” crowdfunding campaign to raise an initial £20,000 toward a campaign to put creativity before generative AI, which has already raised just under £1000.
The creators hope the campaign will “spark a movement rather than simply make a statement”. It comes at a “pivotal time” for the UK’s creative industries, as the government has “stopped short of ruling out a copyright regime that would make it easier for AI companies to train their models on creative work”.
Back in March, the UK government published a Policy Paper, Report on Copyright and Artificial Intelligence, which, as The Bookseller reported, outlined it was moving away from the proposed copyright exception for AI training. However, both the Publishers Association (PA) and Society of Authors (SoA) warned that “not all potentially damaging avenues have been closed down“.
Live now, the campaign is calling on the British public to watch and share the film, sign up to be part of what comes next and back the project through its crowdfunder. This has a target of £20k, all of which would “go towards a campaign to put creativity before generative AI”.
“We make books that children carry with them for life,” Benji Davies, author of Grandad’s Island, told The Bookseller. “The idea that our work, and the work of every artist, could be scraped to train machines, without permission or payment, is something none of us can stand by.
“This isn’t about being anti-technology, it’s about saying that people and creativity come first. We are better than this.”
• Watch the video and sign up for The We Are Better Than This campaign here
• Watch the video and contribute to The We Are Better Than This crowdfunding campaign here
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Momoko Abe
Momoko Abe (surname Abe, pronounced as “Ah-beh”) is a London-based author-illustrator from Japan who absolutely adores children’s books. Momoko was shortlisted for the AOI World Illustration Awards in 2019 and her first self-penned picture book, Avocado Asks: What Am I?, published by Orchard Books in 2020, won Spark Kingston & Richmond Children’s Book Awards in 2021. Momoko is represented by Eunice McMullen
Ger Adamson
Ged Adamson, represented by Isabel Atherton at Creative Authors, is a writer and illustrator whose breakthrough book, Douglas, You Need Glasses! was published in May 2016 by Schwartz and Wade (Penguin Random House). Since then, he’s worked with many publishers as both author and illustrator. Self-penned titles include Shark Dog, Ava and the Rainbow (Who Stayed) and Scribbly: A Real Imaginary Friend Tale for Harper Collins, A Fox Found a Box – again with Schwartz and Wade (PRH) and Bird Hugs and Brianosaurus with Two Lions.
He’s also the illustrator of I Have To Start At School Today by Simon Philip (Simon & Schuster). He has illustrated a three book series written by Barry Timms – This is Not a Unicorn!, This is Not a Dinosaur! and This is Not a Polar Bear! all published with Nosy Crow. His own book The Elephant Detectives, was published by Nosy Crow in 2022, and translated into many languages. He teamed up again (as illustrator) with Nosy Crow for The Bear, the Book and the Blanket, written by Lou Peacock.
Simona Ciraolo
Born in Sardinia, Italy, now living in London, Simona Ciraolo is the author-illustrator of If Winter Comes, Tell It I’m Not Here and many other picture books. She studied animation at the National Film School in Turin, Italy, and earned an MA in Illustration at the Cambridge School of Art, where she was awarded the Sebastian Walker Award in 2014..
Benji Davies
Benji Davies is a picture book writer and artist based in East London, whose books can been read in over forty languages and have sold many millions of copies around the world. In his work he aims to capture how it feels to be a child. By immersing themselves in the stories he writes and illustrates, Benji hopes that children will find a quiet confidence with which to navigate the noise and bustle of the real world.
Since hailed a modern classic, his first self-penned picture book, The Storm Whale, won the inaugural Oscar’s Book Prize and was Dutch Picture Book Of The Year. His second, Grandad’s Island, garnered similar plaudits, winning the children’s book category of the AOI World Illustration Awards and being crowned Children’s Book of the Year at the Sainsbury’s Children’s Book Awards. In 2020 he won Oscar’s Book Prize for a second time with Tad, a story about a tadpole making its way in the big, wide pond. All three of these books have been adapted for the stage.
Alongside his authored work, Benji is the illustrator of Nosy Crow’s internationally bestselling book series, Bizzy Bear.
Chris Haughton
Designer and children’s book author Chris Haughton has been a freelance illustrator for nearly twenty years. His interest in fair trade drew him into working with a number of non-profit projects and in 2007 he was listed in Time Magazine’s DESIGN 100 for the design work he had been doing for People Tree.
Since then he has also begun writing children’s books. His first, A Bit Lost, has been translated into 35 languages and has won awards in 12 countries including the Dutch Picture Book of the Year. Oh No George! came out in 2012, SHH! We have a plan in 2014, Goodnight Everyone (2016), Don’t Worry, Little Crab (2019), Maybe (2021) and Well Done, Mummy Penguin (2022). The History of Information, a non-fiction journey through the evolution of knowledge, communication, and information, was published in 2024.
His first app, Hat Monkey, was released in September 2014 and his VR experience Little Earth was released in 2017.
While living in Nepal in 2010/2011 Chris co-founded Pecha Kucha Kathmandu with Sujan Chitrakar; and NODE, a fair trade social business based in Nepal with Akshay Sthapit in 2012.
He is represented by Debbie Bibo literary agency. For information on his book work please contact her here
• UK Government Policy Paper, Report on Copyright and Artificial Intelligence
Empowering authors since 1884, Society of Authors is the UK’s largest trade union for all types of writers, illustrators and literary translators, at all stages of their careers. They have been advising individuals and speaking out for the profession for more than a century.
Members receive unlimited free advice on all aspects of the profession, including confidential clause-by-clause contract vetting, and a wide range of exclusive offers.
They campaign and lobby on the issues that affect authors, including Artificial Intelligence, and hold hundreds of events annually across the UK and online
The Publishers Association works with publishers and industry partners to support our sector as it embraces and navigates rapid developments in Artificial Intelligence (AI). Underpinning all of its work is the principle that copyright-protected work cannot be used to train AI without permission or remuneration. The PA call on government to legislate to require AI developers to be transparent about the content they have used to train their models. They champion licensing as the means by which AI developers can use publishers’ high-quality content.
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John is the founder of downthetubes, launched in 1998. He is a comics and magazine editor, writer, and Press Officer for the Lakes International Comic Art Festival. He also runs Crucible Comic Press.
Working in British comics publishing since the 1980s, his credits include editor of titles such as Doctor Who Magazine and Overkill for Marvel UK, Babylon 5 Magazine, Star Trek Magazine, and its successor, Star Trek Explorer, and more. He also edited the comics anthology STRIP Magazine and edited several audio comics for ROK Comics; and has edited several comic collections and graphic novels, including volumes of “Charley’s War” and “Dan Dare”, and Hancock: The Lad Himself, by Stephen Walsh and Keith Page.
He’s the writer of comics such as Pilgrim: Secrets and Lies for B7 Comics; “Crucible”, a creator-owned project with 2000AD artist Smuzz; and “Death Duty” and “Skow Dogs”, with Dave Hailwood.
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