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Major rights holders seek assurances over AI drive

Arts Professional
2 min read

A coalition of arts sector bodies and creative rights holders is calling for assurances from the government after it set out its plans to harness AI to “deliver a decade of national renewal”.

This week Prime Minister Keir Starmer agreed to take forward all 50 recommendations of the AI Opportunities Action Plan, including to “reform the UK text and data mining regime so that it is at least as competitive as the EU”.

The plan claims that “current uncertainty around intellectual property (IP) is hindering innovation”.

It says this situation “needs to be urgently resolved”, noting that while the EU has moved forward with an approach that is designed to balance innovation with control for rights holders, “the UK is falling behind”.

Starmer said that the plan would make the UK the “world leader” in AI, but the Creative Rights in AI Coalition is calling on the government to provide assurances that all options in its current consultation on copyright and AI – including enforcing the existing copyright regime with transparency provisions – “remain on the table”.

The consultation was opened on 17 December, running for 10 weeks until 25 February.

The coalition includes sector bodies and trade unions such as Equity, UK Music and the Writer’s Guild of Great Britain.

In a statement, the group denied that there was “uncertainty” in these matters, saying that “UK copyright law does not allow text and data mining for commercial purposes without a licence”.

“The only uncertainty is around who has been using the UK’s creative crown jewels as training material without permission and how they got hold of it, making transparency provisions vital,” the coalition said.

The group added that it was “deeply concerning” to see the EU’s approach looked to as a example, saying that the union is “still working out how to implement its EU AI Act and there are persistent questions over the workability of their opt-out regime”.

“The UK should learn from the EU regime’s shortcomings, not blindly imitate it,” the statement adds.