The UK government has revealed that 88% of respondents to its big consultation on copyright and AI said that AI companies should be forced to secure licences when using existing content to train their models. Only 3% supported the government’s previously stated preference of introducing a new copyright exception to benefit AI companies, but with an opt-out for rightsholders.
According to Ed Newton-Rex of Fairly Trained, who has campaigned against the proposed new AI copyright exception, the message from this consultation “could not be clearer”.
He tells CMU, “respondents overwhelmingly support the common sense position that AI companies should pay for the resources they use”, while also rejecting the government’s “ill-thought-through ‘preferred option’ that would hand people's work to tech companies for free".
Newton-Rex, a composer and AI expert who quit his job as VP of Audio at Stability AI over its position that AI companies should be able to make use of copyright protected works without securing permission from rightsholders, adds that the UK government “should listen to the people and rule out an AI copyright exception immediately”.
There was a considerable backlash from the creative industries at the start of the year after the Labour government said it supported introducing a new text and data mining - or TDM - copyright exception for AI companies even before completing its big consultation.
At various points ministers have indicated that they no longer have a preferred option when it comes to the copyright obligations of AI companies, but they have not followed the lead of their Australian counterparts in entirely ruling out the introduction of a new exception.
The UK government has published an update on its copyright and AI consultation today, because it committed to do so earlier this year when seeking to stop the House Of Lords from adding some AI and copyright provisions into the new Data Act. A full report is due in March, so today’s update is very much a stop gap.
When it opened its consultation this time last year, the government sought input on four proposals: introducing a new TDM exception for AI companies; introducing a new exception but with an opt-out for rightsholders, so that works controlled by those rightsholders would still have to be licensed; strengthening copyright law to clarify that AI companies must get licences from rightsholders; and doing nothing on the assumption existing copyright law required AI companies to secure licences.
88% supported strengthening copyright law, while 7% supported doing nothing. 3% backed a new exception with opt-out, while 0.5% supported a new exception without opt-out. Those stats specifically relate to the 10,000+ respondents who filled out a feedback form published by the government.
Another 1400 submissions were made by email, which likely includes most of the companies and trade bodies that took part in the consultation. Although we don’t have precise stats for the email submissions, the government says the “same sentiments were generally reflected across those responses”.
While there was an overwhelming consensus in the submissions made to the consultation, the government’s update is keen to stress that that’s because there’s a lot more individuals and organisations with an interest in all this on the creative industries side than on the tech sector.
The “distribution of preferences partly reflects the large response to the consultation from individual creators and the creative industries”, the update explains.
And, unsurprisingly, responses from the creative industries predominantly supported strengthening copyright law, while most of those from the technology sector, including AI developers, supported a new copyright exception, either with or without rightsholder opt-out.
For now the government is still trying to keep all the options on the table, so as not to piss off either side. Its update also runs through a wide array of roundtable meetings that have been held in recent months, while promising a full report and economic impact assessment study by 18 Mar next year.
It then concludes, “Copyright laws must protect creative works, whilst also ensuring the UK reaps the transformational benefits of AI and keeps our place as one of the world’s top innovators and economies. We are continuing to consider all options and will provide a detailed summary of consultation responses on each of the options and the specific technical areas as part of our report”.