Proof of Human: AI, Copyright, and the Fight for Creative Authorship

During this public lecture Andrew Melchior, CTO of Massive Attack and founder of Genotone Ltd, invites you to examine how the rise of generative AI exposed a foundational crisis in how we attribute, protect, and reward human creativity. Trained on vast corpora of copyrighted work — often without consent, credit, or compensation — large-scale AI systems are now producing outputs that compete directly with the artists whose labour made them possible. The legal frameworks designed to protect creators are struggling to keep pace, and the political stakes could not be higher.

In his talk, Andrew Melchior draws on his experience advising UK government technical working groups on AI and copyright, and his work building Genotone; an open provenance protocol designed to establish verifiable authorship at the point of creation. He argues that the challenge is not simply legal but infrastructural: without a reliable way to distinguish human-made work from AI-generated content, and to trace the lineage of creative material through complex supply chains, no rights regime can be effectively enforced.

Weaving together perspectives from music, policy, and technology, the talk will sit at the intersection of AI, copyright, and artist provenance infrastructure and examine what meaningful protection for artists might look like in practice.

After the lecture Andrew will be in conversation with John McGrath, Chief Executive and Artistic Director of Factory International, followed by the opportunity for the audience to ask their questions.

Agenda

6pm: Welcome reception

6.30pm: Welcome from Creative Manchester

6.35pm: Lecture by Andrew Melchior: Proof of Human: AI, Copyright, and the Fight for Creative Authorship

7.05pm: Discussion between Andrew Melchior & John McGrath

7.25pm: Audience Q&A

7.40pm: Closing words