Britain seeks ‘reset’ in copyright battle between AI and creators

LONDON, Jan 13 (Reuters) – British technology minister Liz Kendall said on Tuesday the government was seeking a “reset” on plans to overhaul copyright rules to accommodate artificial intelligence, pledging to protect creators while unlocking AI’s economic potential.

Creative industries worldwide are grappling with legal and ethical challenges posed by AI systems that generate original content after being trained on popular works, often without compensating the original creators.

Britain, which Prime Minister Keir Starmer wants to turn into an AI superpower, initially proposed relaxing copyright laws to allow developers to train models on any material they could lawfully access, with creators required to opt out.

Ministers said this approach had been a mistake.

Kendall told a committee of lawmakers that the publication of the government’s review – due in March – would be a “genuine reset moment”. She said the creative industry’s two main concerns – reward for their work and control of their art – were incredibly important.

“One of the things that was crystal clear in the consultation was just how important fundamentally it is for the creative sector to have those two issues at the heart of the way forward,” she said.

Culture minister Lisa Nandy, who appeared alongside Kendall in front of the committee, echoed that view, saying there was no single answer from contributors to the review, but the initially preferred opt-out system was widely rejected. 

“One of the learning points for this government has been that it was a mistake to start with a preferred model, the opt-out model,” Nandy said.

“We have to take a far more nuanced approach to this and work with different parts of the creative industries to address the very serious and in some cases existential challenge that is posed by the current system, let alone by any changes that we may make,” she added.

(Reporting by Sam Tabahriti and Paul Sandle; editing by William James)