Suchir SalhanA new report published jointly by three Cambridge initiatives argues that the unregulated use of Generative AI will not guarantee economic growth and risks damaging the UK’s thriving creative sector, as the UK government closes a consultation today (25/02) into plans for the future of copyright and AI. The consultation suggests a so-called “rights reservation” system where every company, artist or author would need to opt out of their work being utilised and copied by tech groups.
The report – produced in collaboration by the Minderoo Centre for Technology and Democracy, the Bennett Institute for Public Policy, and ai@cam – argues that that there are significant risks in allowing artistic content produced in the UK to be scraped for endless reuse by offshore companies.
“Going the way of an opt-out model is telling Britain’s artists, musicians, and writers that tech industry profitability is more valuable than their creations,” said Prof Gina Neff, Executive Director at the Minderoo Centre for Technology and Democracy. This contradicts the message from the government, with a A spokesman for the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT) commenting that the UK’s “current regime for copyright and AI is holding back the creative industries, media and AI sector from realising their full potential – and that cannot continue”.
Sir Keir Starmer’s lead adviser on AI, Matt Clifford, has faced questions over whether his investments in AI companies serve as a conflict of interest in the advice he offers relating to the copyright regime. Clifford — who studied history at Cambridge and computational statistics at MIT and co-founded venture capital firm Entrepreneur First at the age of 25 — is part of a clutch of influential government advisers who want the UK to take a leading role in AI safety.
Creative sector and media groups are responding with an industry campaign called “Make it Fair”, as part of a co-ordinated wave of protests planned to highlight the dangers of this approach.
- National daily and regional publications, including The Guardian and The Times, will run the same cover “wrap” across their print newspapers and websites. Weekly titles will run the campaign throughout the week. Separately artists like Paul McCartney and Elton John have argued against these government proposals.
- Andrew Lloyd Weber and his son, Alastair Weber the cofounder of an independent record company, penned in today’s edition of The Guardian that: “we stand at a pivotal juncture The streaming era has already diminished the value of songwriters to the extent that many struggle to make a living. Streaming revenue allocates about 15% to songwriters, while record labels and artists receive 55%, and streaming services claim 30%. Moreover, songwriters are not compensated upfront for their used songs by artists and labels, unlike in TV, film and theatre where there is an option for their works. Consequently, relying solely on 15% is an insurmountable challenge. Now, the UK risks making an even greater error.”
- More than 1000 musicians, including Annie Lennox and Damon Albarn, released a silent album on Tuesday called “Is this what we want? ” backed by members of Radiohead and Bastille. The album features recording of empty studio and performance spaces. The track listing spelt the following message: “The British government must not legalise music theft to benefit AI companies.”
The Cambridge report urges caution against embarking on the path of a Text and Data Mining (TDM) exemption, regardless of an ‘opt-out’ mechanism, without a robust economic analysis of the impact that it will have on the creative industries. It encourage the uptake of licensing agreements to ensure copyright holders are compensated for use of their work by AI systems, with the additional requirement of ensuring that these licensing agreements fully acknowledge the rights of copyright holders and fairly compensate them for the use of their works. It also recommends the government should adopt transparency requirements on the training of AI systems which include the mandatory disclosure of data used.
Pictured: ‘The Make it Fair’ Wrapper featured across several UK front pages (25/02), making it the second coordinated front page across several publications in UK media history. Image sourced from X.
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