The UK government Tuesday launched a consultation on plans to provide artificial intelligence developers with clarity over copyright law, as it seeks to support artists’ incomes and boost the economy.
While the Labour government said its proposals aim to protect the creative industries, artists expressed concern ahead of the announcement that the plans would not prevent AI companies using their content freely.
“It’s clear that our current AI and copyright framework does not support either our creative industries or our AI sectors to compete on the global stage,” technology minister Peter Kyle said in a statement.
“That is why we are setting out a balanced package of proposals to address uncertainty about how copyright law applies to AI so we can drive continued growth in the AI sector and creative industries.”
Kyle, whose full title is secretary of state for science, innovation and technology, added that the process will help deliver on the government’s “mission of the highest sustained growth in the G7”.
The proposals “aim to give creators greater control over how their material is used by AI developers, and enhance their ability to be paid for its use”, the government said.
They also “seek greater transparency from AI firms over the data used to train AI models”.
Lisa Nandy, secretary of state for culture, media and sport, said the “government firmly believes that our musicians, writers, artists and other creatives should have the ability to know and control how their content is used by AI firms”.
She added that they should “be able to seek licensing deals and fair payment”.
As of Monday, 37,300 people -including big name actors, authors and musicians — had signed a global online petition warning of the threat posed by AI.
Julianne Moore, Kate Bush and Ian Rankin are among the artists to have signed.
The petition states that “the unlicensed use of creative works for training generative AI is a major, unjust threat to the livelihoods of the people behind those works, and must not be permitted”.
The consultation runs until February 25.
