UK ministers urged to safeguard creatives’ rights

The House of Lords committee states that copyright laws are inadequate as tech companies lift content without permission

Ministers are urged to protect content creators whose work is being used without authorization by tech companies to develop artificial intelligence products like chatbots, which yield significant financial gains, according to a House of Lords committee.

The UK’s legal framework is failing to uphold fundamental copyright principles in the face of increased AI advancements, stated the Lords’ communications and digital committee.

“Some tech firms are profiting from copyrighted material without consent, resulting in substantial financial gains,” remarked the committee.

Copyright has emerged as a crucial issue in the advancement of generative AI, a technology that generates text, images, and audio based on human input.

Content creators and owners contend that their content is being unlawfully utilized to train large language models (LLMs), the foundation of chatbots, which require extensive data input to accurately predict subsequent words in a sequence.

A report on LLMs and generative AI, released on Friday, emphasized the fundamental principles of copyright: rewarding creators for their work, prohibiting unauthorized use of their creations, and fostering innovation.

The committee urged the government to address copyright infringement, stating, “The current legal framework is failing to ensure these objectives are met, and the government has a responsibility to take action. It cannot passively wait for the courts to resolve the issue over the next decade.”

The committee recommended that the government assess whether copyright law adequately protects copyright holders. If there are legal uncertainties, the committee suggested that the government outline options for updating legislation.

Lady Stowell, the committee’s Conservative chair, stated, “The government must clarify whether copyright law offers sufficient protections to rights holders in light of the introduction of LLMs. If the government determines that the legislative framework is inadequate, it should revise that framework.”

The government’s intellectual property office is developing a code of practice regarding copyright and AI. The 1988 Copyright Act includes an exemption for text and data mining for “non-commercial purposes.” In 2022, the government signaled its intention to expand this exemption to encompass any use, but has since reversed course on that decision.

Stowell also suggested that the UK, given its abundant private and government-held data, could provide licensed datasets to AI companies seeking to develop models on a legally secure foundation. “If we can establish new licensed datasets, there is a market opportunity that we should be able to capitalize on,” she remarked.

In the US, OpenAI, the developer of the groundbreaking ChatGPT chatbot, is facing a lawsuit from the New York Times and several authors over alleged copyright infringement. One group of authors, including bestseller John Grisham, has accused OpenAI of “systematic theft on a large scale.”

In its testimony to the committee, OpenAI stated that developing tools like ChatGPT would be impractical without access to copyrighted material. Meta, led by Mark Zuckerberg, the image generator company Stability AI, and Microsoft, an investor in OpenAI, also informed the committee that restricting access to data could lead to inferior or biased models.

In the US, OpenAI’s defense relies on the concept of “fair use,” which permits the use of content under certain circumstances without seeking the owner’s permission. In the UK, there are also copyright exemptions under “fair dealing,” which apply to areas such as research, private study, and news reporting.

In another section of the report, the committee cautions the government about an extended period of “technological upheaval” due to AI and urges ministers to take action against the consolidation of market power in the hands of a few companies.

Stowell remarked, “There must be fair competition. The market must remain open. It is concerning if we see a situation where it is controlled by a small number of large firms.”

A government spokesperson stated, “The IPO [intellectual property office] has collaborated with stakeholders in a working group to develop a voluntary code on AI and copyright. We will provide updates on this work soon and continue to collaborate closely with stakeholders to ensure the AI and creative industries thrive together.”