Government has recommended making copyright law more, “competitive,” to help the UK become a home to AI companies

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The House of Lords has voted to extend copyright law, so that it covers content used to train AI models.

Peers voted 145 to 126 in favour of amending the Data (Use and Access) Bill, explicitly bringing AI companies under UK copyright law - which adds protection for intellectual property which is scraped by tech companies to train their AI software. It also aims to reveal the names and owners of programs scraping web content, and allow copyright owners to know when, where and how their work is used.

The Bill had previously put the onus on creators to “opt out” of their content being used for AI training. The bill will now return to the Commons to be debated again. 

Baroness Kidron, who proposed the amendments, said they would, “protect the incomes of the UK’s second most valuable industrial sector.”

The government is currently consulting with the creative industries over introducing an exception to copyright law for AI training for commercial purposes while allowing rights holders to reserve their right, so they can control the use of their content. That consultation runs until 25 February.

The Lords vote also comes shortly after the government’s AI Opportunities Action Plan had recommended reforming copyright to make the UK more, “competitive,” in the AI market. It stated that the government should adapt, “the UK text and data mining regime so that it is at least as competitive as the EU. The current uncertainty around intellectual property (IP) is hindering innovation and undermining our broader ambitions for AI, as well as the growth of our creative industries. This has gone on too long and needs to be urgently resolved. The EU has moved forward with an approach that is designed to support AI innovation while also enabling rights holders to have control over the use of content they produce. The UK is falling behind.” 

Among the 50 recommendations in the AI Opportunities Action Plan, it also mentions establishing, “a copyright-cleared British media asset training data set,” possibly using BBC content; create a regulatory regime that can address risks and drive AI trust and adoption; and appointing “AI champions” for sectors of the economy.