A lot has changed in the past few years, and it is high time for Creative Commons (CC) to be louder about our values. Underpinning our recently released strategic plan is a renewed call for reciprocity. Neutrality serves only the status quo and there is nothing neutral about fighting for a more equitable world through open practices and sharing knowledge.  

Since the inception of CC, there have been two sides to the licenses. There’s the legal side, which describes in explicit and legally sound terms, what rights are granted for a particular item. But, equally there’s the social side, which is communicated when someone applies the CC icons. The icon acts as identification, a badge, a symbol that we are in this together, and that’s why we are sharing. Whether it’s scientific research, educational materials, or poetry, when it’s marked with a CC license it’s also accompanied by a social agreement which is anchored in reciprocity. This is for all of us.

But, with the mainstream emergence of generative AI, that social agreement has come into question and come under threat, with knock-on consequences for the greater commons. Current approaches to building commercial foundation models lack reciprocity. No one shares photos of ptarmigans to get rich, no one contributes to articles about Huldufólk​ seeking fame. It is about sharing knowledge. But when that shared knowledge is opaquely ingested, credit is not given, and the crawlers ramp up server activity (and fees) to the degree where the human experience is degraded, folks are demotivated to continue contributing.

The open movement has always fought for shared knowledge to be accessible for everyone and anyone to use, to learn from. We don’t want to slow down scientific discovery. If we can more rapidly learn, discover, and innovate, with the use of new technologies, that’s wonderful. As long as we’re actually in this together.

What we ultimately want, and what we believe we need, is a commons that is strong, resilient, growing, useful (to machines and to humans)—all the good things, frankly. But as our open infrastructures mature they become increasingly taken for granted, and the feeling that “this is for all of us” is replaced with “everyone is entitled to this”. While this sounds the same, it really isn’t. Because with entitlement comes misuse, the social contract breaks, reciprocation evaporates, and ultimately the magic weakens. 

Reciprocity in the age of AI means fostering a mutually beneficial relationship between creators/data stewards and AI model builders. For AI model builders who disproportionately benefit from the commons,  reciprocity is a way of giving back to the commons that is community and context specific. 

(And in case it wasn’t already clear, this piece isn’t about policy or laws, but about centering people). 

This is where our values need to enter the equation: we cannot sit neutrally by and allow “this is for everyone” to mean that grossly disproportionate benefits of the commons accrue to the few. That our shared knowledge pools get siphoned off and kept from us. 

We believe reciprocity must be embedded in the AI ecosystem in order to uphold the social contract behind sharing.  If you benefit from the commons, and (critically) if you are in a position to give back to the commons, you should. Because the commons are for everyone, which means we all need to uphold the value of the commons by contributing in whatever way is appropriate. 

There never has been, nor should there be, a mandatory 1:1 exchange between each individual and the commons. What’s appropriate then, as a way to give back? So many possibilities come to mind, including:

• Increasing agency as a means to achieve reciprocity by allowing data holders to signal their preferences for AI training 
• Credit, in the form of attribution, when possible
• Open infrastructure support
• Cooperative dataset development
• Putting model weights or other components into the commons

When we talk about defending the commons, it involves sustaining them, growing them, and making sure that the social contract remains intact for future generations of humans. And for that to happen, it’s time for some reciprocity.

Part of CC being louder about our values is also taking action in the form of a social protocol that is built on preference signals, a simple pact between those stewarding data and those reusing it for generative AI. Like CC licenses, they are aimed at well-meaning actors and designed to establish new social norms around sharing and access based on reciprocity. We’re actively working alongside values-aligned partners to pilot a framework that makes reciprocity actionable when shared knowledge is used to train generative AI. Consider joining the Open Infrastructure Circle to help us move this work forward.

Posted 02 April 2025