Copyright and AI

In an attempt to better handle the emergence of artificial intelligence and the impact this is having on copyright and content creators, in December 2024, the government published proposals to change the way in which this material could be used. Largely following the EU’s approach, it is believed this will help minimise the impact for rights holders. Yes, the EU approach certainly has its critics, but the UK appears to be attempting to learn from the mistakes from the EU’s implementation by looking to provide more certainty/transparency on how the measures will work in practice.

Nevertheless, within these proposals, the government has established a copyright exemption for artificial intelligence developers, as well as a new rights reservation, which means that copyright holders would need to independently opt-out from having their works used for the training and coaching of artificial intelligence.

This proposal has resulted in a stream of negative opinion from more than 1,000 musicians – including Annie Lennox, Damon Albarn and Kate Bush. Recently, Bush, Albarn and Lennox released a new ‘silent’ album in protest of this new proposal and the potential changes to copyright law in the UK. Artists believe that the planned changes do not seek to protect creators but instead make it easier for AI companies to train models using copyrighted work without a licence. Under the new proposals, AI developers will be able to use creators’ content on the internet to help develop AI models, unless the rights holders elect to “opt out”. Arguably, this will be difficult for a creator to manage, especially in the digital era. Other artists vocal about the proposed changes to copyright law include Imogen Heap, Yusuf aka Cat Stevens, Riz Ahmed and Hans Zimmer who have also backed the silent album release.

The navigation of the IP landscape continues in light of ever evolving issues surrounding AI and we shall wait to see whether such a proposal becomes binding.