Artificial intelligence

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The UK government is still to give a clear steer on what the screen sector can expect on the future of AI and creative copyright, following the publication of the government’s Creative Industries Sector Plan in June and response to the inquiry into film and high-end TV conducted by the culture, media and sport committee, published yesterday.

“We will ensure a copyright regime that values and protects human creativity, can be trusted, and unlocks new opportunities for innovation across the creative sector and wider economy,” said the sector plan. 

“The government wants to support rightsholders in licensing their work in the digital age while allowing AI developers to benefit from access to creative material in the United Kingdom. The right approach here will unlock new opportunities for innovation across the whole economy.”

Exactly how it is going to come up with a plan to please both the creative industries and tech is not clear, as stressed by the Writers’ Guild of Great Britain general secretary Ellie Peers in response to the sector plan.

“Serious questions remain around copyright and AI that will only be answered when the government lays out its position following its recent consultation,” said Peers. “It is vital that creators’ rights and remuneration are not sacrificed in an attempt to woo Big Tech.”

The UK’s Data (Use and Access) Bill, which passed through parliament on June 12, has irked many creatives. It passed without the amendment pushed for by many in the House of Lords to better protect the rights of creatives and prevent tech companies to train AI on copyrighted material, without the consent of the rights holder.

Caution 

The sector plan suggests the government is not in a rush to push through further legislative protections for creatives – which is worrying many who fear their work is already being scraped.

“The government is analysing responses to the consultation on delivering a copyright and AI framework, looking at all options,” read the sector plan. “The government recognises the need for this to be done properly and carefully in a considered, measured and reasoned way, to develop any future proposals. The government will set out a detailed economic impact assessment on all options under consideration and a report [to be published within nine months of the data bill receiving royal assent] on the use of copyright material for AI training, transparency and technical standards.

“This analysis will inform the government’s position, alongside a series of expert working groups to bring together people from both the AI and creative sectors on the issues of transparency, licensing and other technical standards to chart a way forward.”

This caution is echoed in the government’s response to the film and high-end TV inquiry report. The inquiry called for the government to abandon its preference for a data mining exception for AI training with rights reservation model, and instead require AI developers to license any copyrighted works before using them to train their AI models.

“The government is currently considering the 11,500 responses to its consultation and will provide its response in the coming months,” this week’s first response said. “The government recognises the need for this to be done properly and carefully in a considered, measured and reasoned way, and expects transparency measures to form an important part of any future legislative proposals. We are looking afresh at the whole range of options, keeping an open mind about what the answer might be.”

The inquiry also recommended the industry, in consultation with the government’s promised soon-to-be appointed ‘AI sector champion for the creative industries’ should develop an AI certification scheme for the ethical use of generative AI in film and HETV. To ensure compliance and protect the industry from irresponsible use of AI tools, the government should mandate certification for UK-based broadcasters or productions claiming tax incentives and National Lottery funding.

“The government’s recent copyright and AI consultation considered the labelling of generative AI outputs amongst other emerging issues in this area,’ noted the government.

“We recognise the various industry initiatives to label AI outputs, and, as part of the consultation process, we are considering the case for regulation to ensure the labelling of AI outputs happens consistently. We will consider this as we develop our approach to AI regulation generally. However, we have concerns about creating a new scheme that could restrict innovation, in addition to our broader concerns that increasing the complexity of our tax incentives has the potential to make them less attractive.”

What is clear is the UK government is keen for the creative industries to heavily lean into tech developments.

In the sector plan, the government committed to establishing a Creative Content Exchange (CCE), which it has positioned as a “trusted marketplace for selling, buying, licensing, and enabling permitted access to digitised cultural and creative assets. This new marketplace will open up new revenue streams and allow content owners to commercialise and financialise their assets while providing data users with ease of access. In this way, the CCE will help fuel the next wave of creative innovation while facilitating the development of high-value AI models”.

The government is keen to foster partnerships between creative and tech companies, with repeated references to createch – 21 to be precise – in the sector plan. “We will harness the power of creators, entrepreneurs and investors, and establish the UK as a global leader in the emerging ‘createch’ sector,” the plan said, with the expectation that createch businesses are expected to generate £18bn in GVA and 160,000 jobs over the next decade.

 

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