The Hellenic Copyright Organization participated in the conference “Copyright and Human Creativity in the Age of AI”, held at the Irish Film Institute on Wednesday, 14 October 2026, under Ireland’s Presidency of the Council of the European Union. The conference was organized by NewsBrands Ireland and the Irish Recorded Music Association (IRMA), with the support of Ireland’s Department of Enterprise, Tourism and Employment.
The conference aimed to examine how human creativity can retain its value and be protected amid rapid technological advances. The discussions focused on building trust in the use of artificial intelligence (AI), developing a fair and robust market for the licensing of protected works, and ensuring the effective enforcement of copyright. Policymakers, legal experts, rights holders and creators shared their perspectives on these issues.
In her opening address, Professor Eleonora Rosati noted that, despite the complexities arising from differences in the transposition of relevant EU directives across Member States, there is a willingness within the EU to regulate AI. The keynote address was delivered by Henna Virkkunen, Executive Vice-President of the European Commission, who emphasized that the AI Act is already in force and that the EU has begun implementing it.
Naoise Ó Cearúil, Chair of the Irish Parliament’s Committee on AI, called for stricter regulation of transparency requirements concerning training data. Agnieszka Horak (IFPI) highlighted the widespread use of protected content by AI systems in the music sector. Dr Conor Kostick, representing the European Writers’ Council, underscored the importance of full transparency.
In his closing remarks, Peter Burke, Minister for Enterprise, Tourism and Employment, observed that AI-generated content is now directly competing with human creativity and that AI is challenging the very essence of human creativity.
The HCO’s participation reflects its ongoing monitoring of European developments in the fields of copyright and artificial intelligence.