New report argues that the UK government should resist allowing AI companies to scrape all copyrighted works unless the holder has actively “opted out”.
A joint report from the Bennett Institute for Public Policy, Minderoo Centre for Technology and Democracy, and ai@cam argues that unregulated use of generative AI will not guarantee economic growth, and risks damaging the UK’s thriving creative sector.
If the UK adopts the proposed ‘rights reservation’ for AI data mining, rather than maintaining the legal foundation that automatically safeguards copyright, it will compromise the livelihoods of many in the sector, particularly those just starting out, say researchers.
They argue that it risks allowing artistic content produced in the UK to be scraped for endless reuse by offshore companies.
“The current lack of clarity about the licensing and regulation of training data use is a lose-lose situation. Creative professionals aren’t fairly compensated for their work being used to train AI models, while AI companies are hesitant to fully invest in the UK due to unclear legal frameworks.”
“We propose mandatory transparency requirements for AI training data and standardised licensing agreements that properly value creative works. Without these guardrails, we risk undermining our valuable creative sector in the pursuit of uncertain benefits from AI.”
– Prof Diane Coyle, Bennett Professor of Public Policy, Bennett Institute for Public Policy
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The views and opinions expressed in this post are those of the author(s) and not necessarily those of the Bennett Institute for Public Policy.
