Put levy on smartphones to help creatives survive AI threat, top UK artists tell Labour

Open letter to culture secretary also proposes freelancers' commissioner' to champion cause of the low-paid in creative industries

More than 4,000 artists have called on the government to create a levy on smartphone sales to fund visual art in the face of cuts, studio closures and the rise of generative AI.

Creatives including Sir John Akomfrah, Britain's representative at the Venice Biennale, and Dame Sonia Boyce, the first black woman elected to the Royal Academy of Arts, as well as film director and photographer Sam Taylor-Johnson and Turner prize nominee HeatherPhillipson have signed an open letter to Lisa Nandy, the culture secretary.