The UK government has shelved plans to create an AI copyright code that would protect artists. In what has been described as a ‘blow to the creative industries’, the government-led talks with the big AI companies came to a standstill.
According to the Financial Times, the talks failed because the representative artists and AI companies could not come to any consensus or agreement on terms.
The Intellectual Property Office (IPO) which oversees the UK’s copyright laws, has been consulting with both the creative industries and tech companies such as Microsoft, DeepMind and Stability. The aim was to come to an agreement regarding the use of copyrighted works for data mining and training AI models.
The artistic side of the talks was represented by a mix of arts and news organisations, including the BBC, the British Library, and the Financial Times.
The IPO had been due to publish a code of conduct for AI companies last summer. However, the failure to come to an agreement now means that there is no protection for artists. The AI companies naturally want free reign to train their AI models on all and any copyrighted material without having to compensate the creators.
The UK government is expected to draft a white paper outlining further proposals regarding AI and copyright. However, there won’t be any firm guidelines or real policies that can be implemented.
The past year saw several lawsuits launched against AI companies. These were initiated by artists, stock photo libraries such as Getty, and even the New York Times.
It will be impossible to keep both parties happy in this considerable issue. Fundamentally, the creative industries are being devoured from the inside out by big tech. Once again, the few people at the top will profit massively from the efforts of the many underneath.
[via the financial times]
