EWC at the WIPO Artificial Intelligence Infrastructure Interchange (AIII)

Geneva, 17 March 2026

On the occasion of the launch of the AI Infrastructure Interchange (AIII, pronounced “A-triple-I”), and the presentation of the selected experts within the Technical Exchange Network (TEN), EWC took the floor to remind Member States and organisers to follow the ART principle – and to develop measures for a meaningful marking and labeling of AI (re)produced products.

AIII is a WIPO initiative that wants to facilitate global dialogue on the technical and operational aspects of the intellectual property system in the context of artificial intelligence. The launch event brought together policymakers, technology and provider representatives, AI developers, technical experts and very few authors and other rightsholders, to discuss operational and practical approaches to AI-related IP challenges.

EWC’s Secretary-General, Nicole Pfister Fetz, was invited to intervene from the perspective of authors:

“The European Writers’ Council is the only international federation worldwide representing solely authors of the book sector. 

We support dialogue to build up responsible infrastructure and thank WIPO for the A-triple-I initiative. Thus, we expect a more balanced dialogue respecting cultural and sectorial diversity, regional variety and different levels of each party’s economic capacities.  

The EWC draws attention to our profession, deeply affected by AI: book authors are the most ripped off group by AI development and harmed by competing AI products. Three aspects regarding labelling are key for us: 

 

First, marking and labelling must be mandatory and continuous across the entire cultural value chain, to build an unbroken provenance history. 

Secondly, marking should be multi-layered and fine-granulated. We advocate for a multi-approach system, which combines marking, detection and provenance certificates. 

Thirdly, we stand for both human-readable and machine-readable labels: Authors need to prove the human origin of their works for licensing and remuneration; platforms offering books need metadata for correct payments and categorisations; readers need AI warning labels to not be victims of fraud products; CMOs require labels to license and remunerate only the authors; and States will want to avoid granting awards, cultural subsidies and tax privileges to AI-generated products. 

AI is not just a tool, but an existential threat to authors’ creativity and exploitation of their works.

We hope AIII will keep the dialogue always under the EWC ART principle, present in the international IP Laws: A for Authorisation – R for Remuneration and T for Transparency.” 

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We hope that WIPO and AIII will involve significantly more mandated authors’ organisations in future events and technical negotiations. As the group directly affected, and above all as the primary rights owners, authors must be at the centre of forward-looking initiatives in particular. Otherwise, AI will be like water – but without a source.