The UK government is hoping to placate MPs who want to reinsert copyright and transparency obligations for AI companies back into the current Data Bill - which is due to be debated in the House Of Commons next week - by committing to commission some reports. Which seems unlikely to placate anyone.
It comes amid ongoing Parliamentary dissent over the government’s plans to introduce a new copyright exception to benefit AI companies. According to The Guardian, ministers “will promise to carry out an economic impact assessment of its proposed copyright changes and to publish reports on issues including transparency, licensing and access to data for AI developers”.
The creative industries - including the music industry - have been scathing about the proposed new copyright exception for text and data mining. That exception would allow AI companies training generative AI models to use existing content without getting permission from copyright owners, except where a rightsholder has formally opted out of the exception.
The government is currently ploughing through thousands of submissions made to a recent consultation on copyright and AI, which sought viewpoints on the text and data mining exception, among other things. As a result, it’s not yet clear what the timeline is for any reform of copyright law in the context of AI.
However, Parliamentarians have been trying to get some new rules into law sooner by sneaking them into the Data Bill. When that bill was in the House Of Lords, amendments were made that would require all AI platforms marketing their products in the UK to comply with British copyright law, while also obliging AI companies to be transparent about how creative works are being used.
Once passed by the Lords, the bill moved to the Commons, where the government got those amendments removed, in part arguing that issues around copyright and AI would be better addressed by bespoke legislation drafted by the government, based on the findings of its big consultation.
With the bill set to be discussed in the Commons next week, a group of MPs - led Lib Dem Victoria Collins - are trying to get the Lords amendments reinserted. Meanwhile Labour MP Alex Sobel is proposing a separate amendment around the transparency obligations of AI companies.
Because the government is keen to push any new legislation around copyright and AI to a later date, ministers presumably hope that the promise of an economic impact assessment and other reports - a commitment formalised via amendments to the Data Bill - will reassure critics that their concerns will be addressed down the line.
Obviously the Labour government has a massive majority in the Commons allowing it to ultimately get its way, but it would prefer to do so without too many Parliamentarians - not to mention pop stars and other creators - from dissing it in public.
However, the criticism seems likely to continue. Beeban Kidron, who spearheaded the copyright and transparency amendments to the Data Bill in the Lords, is quoted by The Guardian as saying, “pushing the issue into the long grass with reports and reviews does not meet the moment”.
Meanwhile, Lib Dem MP Collins back in the Commons says, “An economic impact assessment should be the bare minimum creatives can expect. We’ll be pushing to stop AI copyright law from being watered down in the Commons next week, and urge MPs to stand with us and back British creators”.