Labour is set to delay controversial reforms to AI copyright laws following a backlash from the creative industries, it has emerged.
New legislation on allowing artificial intelligence (AI) companies to use copyrighted material is now not expected in May’s King’s Speech – meaning any decision would be pushed into next year.
The Government is due to publish its response to a consultation on how to regulate AI companies’ access to copyrighted material by March 18.
It is understood that this is still set to go ahead, but that respondents to the consultation reportedly did not favour any of the Government’s proposed models for AI use of copyrighted materials.
Instead of proceeding with the original proposals, ministers have decided they need to go back to the drawing board and spend longer consulting on different options, according to the Financial Times.
‘Copyright is going to be kicked down the road,’ a source with knowledge of the Government’s plans told the newspaper.
The Daily Mail is campaigning for authors, publishers and musicians to be paid a fair price for their work and to have their copyright respected.
Artists get automatic copyright protection that means tech firms should compensate them if they use their work to train AI models.
Musicians including Sir Elton John, Sir Paul McCartney and Kate Bush have criticised the plans, as have actors and publishers. They have called on the Government to ditch plans to allow AI tech firms to steal their work without payment or permission
The UK’s creative sector is the envy of the world, but we only achieved that success with the backing of our long-standing copyright protection, says Sir Elton John
But US-based tech giants are using online material, such as text, images or music, to feed their systems and aren’t crediting those who created it.
Musicians including Sir Elton John, Sir Paul McCartney and Kate Bush have criticised the plans, as have actors and publishers.
Tech giants want an exception to copyright law for their AI models to learn from creative works without paying or crediting their owners, in a move that could be devastating for creative industries.
It comes as a new report from the House of Lords Communications and Digital Committee warned that ‘it would be a very “poor bet” for the Government to allow changes to copyright that could undermine the UK’s creative industries’.
Committee Chair Baroness Keeley said Britain’s creative industries ‘face a clear and present danger from uncredited and unremunerated use of copyrighted material to train AI models’.
She added: ‘The Government should now make clear it will not pursue a new text and data mining exception with an opt-out mechanism for training commercial AI models. Instead, it should focus on strengthening UK protections for creators.’
‘Prolonged government-generated uncertainty has been exploited by AI firms and has chilled the licensing market for UK content,’ News Media Association chief executive Owen Meredith told the FT.
‘There is one swift, simple step the government can take to unlock growth in UK intellectual property: publicly rule out changes to copyright law and allow the market to scale at pace.’
A Government spokesman said: ‘The Government wants a copyright regime that values and protects human creativity, can be trusted, and unlocks innovation.
‘We welcome the Committee’s contributions, and we will continue to engage closely with Parliament going forwards.’