Labour MPs have ramped up the pressure on Sir Keir Starmer to reverse plans to roll out the red carpet for AI giants by weakening the UK’s copyright laws.
Two key select committees have penned a powerful letter backing the ‘Make It Fair’ campaign and warning the Government not to sell out Britain’s creative industries by allowing artificial intelligence firms to take content from music to journalism for free in order to “train” software models.
MPs have called on ministers to pause their plans to offer AI giants unfettered access to British-made creative content – with one senior Westminster figure comparing the Government’s proposals to state-sanctioned burglary.
Members of the Culture Select Committee and the Science Select Committee, which is chaired by Labour MP Chi Onwurah, said the Government’s embrace of AI must work to the principle that “everyone should receive fair remuneration for their creative work”.
In a joint letter to Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy and Technology Secretary Peter Kyle, the committees attacked the Government for not publishing an impact assessment on how the proposals would affect Britain’s £126bn a year creative industries.
The MPs said: “Just as AI developers should be more transparent in relation to training data, we believe that the Government should be more forthcoming about the economic analysis underpinning the proposals set out in the consultation.”
The letter also hit out at tech firms Google and Open AI for failing to give evidence to the committees over their plans, reading: “It is disappointing that they chose to decline our invitation. This stance is all too familiar to our committees, which share an interest in furthering the public’s understanding of how global companies develop, operate and deploy their products, taking decisions that affect us all.”
Under its controversial blueprint to turn Britain into a global hub for generative artificial intelligence, Labour is proposing to allow tech companies unfettered access to content unless the owners of the copyright specifically “opt out”.
The Government insists that the current regime for copyright is holding back both the creative and AI industries, and estimates an extra £47bn each year could be generated by a fully-fledged British AI sector over the next decade. It says no decisions have yet been taken on how existing rules will be changed.
The plans have provoked an outcry from leading British artists, including Sir Elton John and playwright Sir Tom Stoppard.
The i Paper is supporting the Make It Fair campaign seeking to preserve existing copyright rules and require tech companies to seek permission to use British-made content to “train” their software models.
Dame Caroline Dinenage, the Conservative Chair of the Culture Committee, said the “opt-out” system proposed by the Government could not work unless or until there was a satisfactory technical mechanism in place to allow creatives to monitor and charge for the use of their content and ensure that AI developers could not set about “pilfering the fruits of their hard-earned success without permission”.
She said: “The Government’s proposal for the onus to be on creators to opt-out of AI training is like burglars being allowed into your house unless there’s a big sign on your front door expressly telling them that thievery isn’t allowed.”
Under Britain’s existing copyright laws, which have been in place since 1709, the right to reproduce or profit from creative content automatically resides with its creator or creators. As such, the removal of copyright-protected material from the internet for commercial purposes without due permission or payment is banned.
Ministers are now understood to be mulling changes to their AI blueprint which could see some creative sectors – such as music or publishing – offered enhanced protections by being allowed an “opt-in” which would grant them an automatic right to be approached by any AI developer wishing to use their content and to be able to charge a suitable licence fee.
However, mass media outlets, including news organisations, would be likely to remain in an “opt-out” system, allowing their content to be scraped from the internet unless they otherwise specified.
James Frith, a Labour MP and former singer who has been one of the leading voices in the debate over existing proposals, told The i Paper that allowing a two-tier system would open the way to AI systems “stealing the livelihoods” of Britain’s creatives.
He said: “There is deep concern right across the creative industries about AI stealing the livelihoods of our creatives. An opt-out system risks undermining our prized creative sector.
“Our creative sector, if developed not dismantled, will deliver the economic growth we all want. If we fail, AI models will use people’s work to generate competing content without compensation – something we would never expect in any other industry.”
The surge of complaints from senior creatives, in an industry traditionally seen as a source of support for Labour, is understood to have caused alarm among the party’s MPs, with backbenchers approaching whips to express concern at the level of grassroots anger being generated by the proposals.
A Government spokesperson said: “As it stands, 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. We have engaged extensively with these sectors throughout and will continue to do so.
“No decisions have been taken, and no moves will be made until we are absolutely confident we have a practical plan that delivers each of our objectives, including increased control for right holders to help them easily license their content, enabling lawful access to material to train world-leading AI models in the UK, and building greater transparency over material being used. Our proposals will be set out in due course.”
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