I agree with on a lot of his proposals in the UK's AI Opportunities Action Plan, released today. But his recommendation to reform copyright law is based on misunderstandings, will be terrible for the creative industries, and is unnecessary to the aim of making the UK a leader in AI.
- Matt repeats the mistaken claim that there is uncertainty around current UK copyright law. There is no uncertainty: commercial generative AI training on 
work without a licence is illegal.
- He says the current position is hindering the growth of our creative industries. But the creative industries say the opposite. They are united in their opposition to the government's proposals to change copyright law.
- He says the EU's approach (where creators have to opt out of gen AI training) gives rights holders control over how their work is used. But it doesn't: opt-out schemes can't be used to successfully opt out of training, and they are hugely unfair to creators. We should not emulate this poorly thought through approach.
- He says we must reform law to compete in AI. This is not the case. We can be a leader in AI without throwing the creative industries under the bus. We should strive to be the home of responsible AI, rather than legalising theft to appease AI companies.
Unfortunately, the government has already agreed to implement Matt's proposal, i.e. to upend copyright law to favour AI companies. It seems the consultation on AI & copyright, which is still ongoing, has some key context no one was aware of: the government has already made its decision, and copyright law will be changed.
It's incredibly sad to see listen to tech CEOs and VCs over the country's creators. It should hear and seriously consider everyone's views. As it is, it is about to hand the life's work of the country's creators to AI companies, for free, so that the AI companies can outcompete them. It is, quite simply, going to legalise theft.
Read the Action Plan here: gov.uk/government/pub
work without a licence is illegal.
- He says the current position is hindering the growth of our creative industries. But the creative industries say the opposite. They are united in their opposition to the government's proposals to change copyright law.
- He says the EU's approach (where creators have to opt out of gen AI training) gives rights holders control over how their work is used. But it doesn't: opt-out schemes can't be used to successfully opt out of training, and they are hugely unfair to creators. We should not emulate this poorly thought through approach.
- He says we must reform law to compete in AI. This is not the case. We can be a leader in AI without throwing the creative industries under the bus. We should strive to be the home of responsible AI, rather than legalising theft to appease AI companies.
Unfortunately, the government has already agreed to implement Matt's proposal, i.e. to upend copyright law to favour AI companies. It seems the consultation on AI & copyright, which is still ongoing, has some key context no one was aware of: the government has already made its decision, and copyright law will be changed.
It's incredibly sad to see listen to tech CEOs and VCs over the country's creators. It should hear and seriously consider everyone's views. As it is, it is about to hand the life's work of the country's creators to AI companies, for free, so that the AI companies can outcompete them. It is, quite simply, going to legalise theft.
Read the Action Plan here: gov.uk/government/pub
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