Minister of State (): The fast-paced development
of Artificial Intelligence (AI), and in particular the need for
large volumes of data during training of Large Language Models
(LLMs), has led to increased scrutiny of the way that copyright
law applies to such activity.
It has become clear that rights holders are finding it difficult
to control the use of their works in the training of AI models
and seek greater ability to control their use and/or be
remunerated for it. AI developers are similarly finding it
difficult to navigate copyright law in the UK, which affects
investment in and adoption of AI technology.
AI technology has enormous potential to drive economic growth,
through productivity improvements and technological innovation,
and to stimulate more effective public service design and
delivery. These are opportunities that the United Kingdom cannot
afford to miss and that is why AI, alongside other technologies,
will support the delivery of our five national missions.
The UK is also home to world leading creative industries, which
has been identified as a growth-driving sector in the
government's Industrial Strategy. Supporting their continued
success is vital to our national mission to grow our economy, as
well as safeguarding our culture and identity.
At present, the application of UK copyright law to the training
of AI models is disputed. This uncertainty is holding back
innovation and undermining growth in our AI sector and creative
industries.
We believe that action is needed now. That is why we are today
publishing a consultation on how we can deliver a viable solution
that achieves our key objectives for the AI and creative industry
sectors. These are:
- To support rights holders to continue to exercise control
over use of their content and ability to seek remuneration for
its use,
- To promote greater trust and transparency between the
sectors, and
- To support the development of world-leading AI models in the
UK by ensuring wide and lawful access to high-quality data.
The consultation published today jointly by the Department for
Science, Innovation and Technology, and the Department for
Culture, Media and Sport, sets out a package of interventions
that we believe could address the needs of both sectors.
The proposals include a mechanism for rights holders to reserve
their rights, enabling them to license and be paid for the use of
their work in AI training. Alongside this, we propose an
exception to support use at scale of a wide range of material by
AI developers where rights have not been reserved. We are
conscious that this combination will only work if a workable
technical system of rights reservation can be brought in.
The consultation also includes proposals to support greater
transparency from AI developers about what material they are
using and how they acquire it, and measures to ensure that rights
can be reserved easily, and right holders' decisions can be
enforced. It also considers several issues relating to the
outputs of generative AI. These include questions about labelling
of AI-created outputs and the extent to which they should be
protected by copyright, as well as questions about digital
replicas where AI is used to generate material that mimics the
voice or appearance of existing performers.
Our aim is to find a balance that supports growth in both the AI
and creative industries sector, by providing a clear and simple
legal basis for access to large volumes of data for training
purposes, while enabling rights holders to exert control and
secure payment. Our hope is that the eventual solution will
provide clear routes to licensing of intellectual property and
legal certainty for all.
We very much welcome responses to the consultation from creators,
copyright owners, AI developers and technology users. We look
forward to receiving feedback through the consultation on whether
the proposals achieve this balance.
