Discussion Forums » Topic of the Month
Topic for February - Artificial Intelligence and Copyright
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This topic is inspired by the current Government Consultation on the subject, see Copyright and Artificial Intelligence - GOV.UK. If you have time, reading at least the Executive Summary would be beneficial.
This consultation is principally about AI and the Creative industries. As things stand, the copyright framework does not meet the needs of UK’s creative industries or AI sectors. Creative and media organisations are concerned that their works are used to train AI without their permission, and they are unable to secure remuneration through licensing agreements.
The Government wants to encourage training of AI models in the UK, at the same time it wants to grow the Creative Industries. There is an urgent need to overcome uncertainty.
Agenda
Is copyright still relevant in an AI age? Should AI produced material be copyrighted? Should hybrid human/AI material be copyrighted? any decisions set a precedent for every sector of business and every part of society. They also relate to how we view human creativity compared to AI creativity over the coming years.
What are the objectives of copyright? What are the downsides? Is there a different way of achieving the underlying objectives as AI progresses?
Do we need/want to protect human creativity? Do we want to protect jobs from AI that can do them better, even creative ones? Or should we be looking for a smooth transition? Are there alternative ways to reward creators?
Assuming we need copyright, what should the objectives of a solution be? Can we create a solution without international agreement? Can we act without disadvantaging our AI ambitions?
Do we agree with the Government’s stated objectives?
- enhance right holders’ control of their material and ability to be remunerated for its use
- support wide access to high-quality material to drive development of leading AI models in the UK
- secure greater transparency from AI developers to build trust with creators, creative industries, and consumers
The Government seeks views on its proposed solution below. What are ours?
- Require increased transparency from AI developers - on the training data used. What level of transparency and how can it be achieved?
- Introduction of an exception to copyright law for “text and data mining”. This improves access to content by AI developers. Allowing right holders to reserve their rights to prevent their content being used for AI training. (Some limited tools for reserving rights exist).
- Seek remuneration for reserved rights content through increased licensing. How should the government support licensing, including collective licensing, and consider the needs of individual creators as part of this?
In addition:
- The government believes that clear labelling of AI outputs would be beneficial to right holders and the public, but acknowledges the technical challenges involved. The government welcomes views on how to achieve clear labelling of AI outputs, including how we can support the development of emerging tools and standards
- The government seeks views on potential reform to protections for computer-generated works.
- Digital replicas (deep fakes). Is the current legal framework sufficient to provide individuals with control over use of their likeness and whether further intervention is required.
- Emerging issues related to the intellectual property framework for AI e.g. AI systems that generate content on internet search. Also how use of synthetic data to train AI models may affect the ecosystem.
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Copyright History
For an interesting history see History of copyright :: The UK Copyright Service
According to this history it was not until the movable type printing press became widespread across Europe that the need for statutory regulation was realised.
It was only in the 1710 Statute of Anne that for the first time copyright belonged to authors rather than the printers and publishers.
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The output of Probably42 discussions on the topic and the basis of input to the Government Consultation is now available at: