On Monday 8th September 2025, the Caribbean Chapter of the International Authors Forum convened the ‘Authors’ Rights in the Age of AI’ international conference which gave a global and local perspective on the impact of artificial intelligence on the rights of authors in the Caribbean. Over 100 participants from 25 different countries attended.
Jewel Greene-George, President of the Trinidad and Tobago Writers’ Guild, opened the conference by welcoming participants and emphasising the urgency of the conversation. He also thanked the organising partners, who were, in addition to the Guild, JAIKU (JAMAICA), the Circle of Poets of Trinidad and Tobago, JAMCOPY (Jamaica), UNESCO Multisectoral Regional Office for the Caribbean, The Caribbean Books Foundation and Spoken Word 501 (Belize).
The International Panel was Chaired by Kevin Fitzgerald, IAF’s Secretary General. Addressing IAF’s Caribbean Chapter for the first time since his tenure began in February, he noted IAF’s wish to support the region’s authors in the specific challenges they face. Philippa Davies, Legal and Operations Consultant from JAMCOPY, then outlined the work of JAMCOPY which is the region’s biggest collective management organisation, member of IFRRO and Chair of CARROSA, and the Caribbean’s regional reproduction rights body set up to handle cross-border licenses in the region. She outlined JAMCOPY’s plans to ensure that AI is covered by JAMCOPY’s licenses, and how keen JAMCOPY was to learn from the conference discussions and ensure Caribbean authors would benefit from licensing solutions that aligned with the current best practices around the world.
The international panel consisted of presentations by the Head of Licensing, Legal and International of Belgium’s RRO, Reprobel, and Kurt Van Damme. They described the impact of Artificial Intelligence on the legal framework that protects authors in the EU as authors’ rights are being eroded following the various revolutionary technological innovations of the digital age. Richard Combes, Head of Rights and Licensing and Deputy CEO of the Authors’ Licensing and Collecting Society in the UK, then described the various research into licensing solutions and lobbying for policies they are working on to ensure that authors’ work and incomes are protected from the to-date unauthorised use of their works in training generative AI models. He spoke of the three pillars which ALCS and other representatives of the UK creative industries, which is valued at $125 billion, would like to see in government policy as AI becomes ever more present: transparency under the law; a fair and inclusive marketplace and no unnecessary formalities to protecting works which are already automatically protected under UK copyright law. Umair Kazi, Director of Policy and Advocacy at the Authors Guild in the USA, described the harm that is being done to markets for authors’ work thanks to AI, with most of the main AI companies being in the USA. He also gave updates on the relevant lawsuits involving authors and AI companies, including the ‘Meta’ and ‘Anthropic’ cases, in which the Guild is actively involved, as well as the Guild’s partnership with the ‘Human Authored’ initiative to ensure that work created by humans is distinguished from what is AI-created and protected accordingly.
Kacy Garvey, poet and founder of JAIKU, then introduced Alex Olvera, translator and President of the Mexican Literary Translators Association (AMETLI), who chaired the second panel which featured experts from the Caribbean: Paul Hector, from UNESCO’s Multisectoral Regional Office for the Caribbean; Rachael Collymore, IP Consultant, Poet and Board Member of the Circle of Poets of Trinidad and Tobago; and Marsha Gomes-McKie, Writer, Illustrator, Cultural Advocate, Founder of Aajumbee Publishing House and Caribbean Books Foundation. Paul Hector presented a survey UNESCO is undertaking with authors in the Caribbean to find out how they are interacting with AI and the impact it is having on their work and encouraged as many authors as possible to join the survey. Rachael Collymore spoke about how important it is for Caribbean authors to know the value of their work and for the region to work together in solidarity with authors around the world to find solutions which will protect their work and enable them to use AI as an effective tool, rather than turning away from it in fear of exploitation. Marsha Gomes-McKie gave a practical guide to how she approaches AI, which she has embraced in her work as an author, illustrator and entrepreneur, while also taking precautions to ensure her own work is not infringed upon. She also discussed how she ensures she does not infringe upon the work of others in the choices she makes or lose her own creative agency.
John Degen, novelist, CEO of The Writers’ Union of Canada and Chair of IAF, concluded the session with an update from Canada, and chaired the Q&A discussion which brought the international and local speakers into a lively debate.