UK musicians urge PM to protect their work from AI

Sir Elton John said he has been left feeling “incredibly betrayed” and branded the UK government as “absolute losers” over plans to exempt technology firms from copyright laws.

A letter signed by hundreds of leading British figures from creative industries such as: musicians, artists and writers, had been sent to the Prime Minister, Sir Keir Starmer, in which a case was put forward for protection of their material from AI companies.

They wanted him to back an amendment to the Data (Use and Access) Bill which would have meant that developers would have to be transparent with copyright owners, over the use of their data when training generative AI models.

A detailed explanation was given showing how failure to give them the security of the need for consent, or realistic compensation packages, would mean that they would effectively be “giving away” all of their own content for free.

However, the government rejected proposals – which had been accepted in the House of Lords by a large majority – to force the AI businesses to disclose what material they were using to develop their robotic programmes.

“Theft and theivery on a high scale will be committed if there is not a re-think,” was Sir Elton’s blunt response to the controversial decision.

Seeking control

These AI programmes are “educated” by vast amounts of data including imagery, text, or music online to generate “new” content which can give the impression that it has been created by a real person.

It makes total sense that if somebody holds the copyright to certain material, then for it to be used by others, they should be allowed to be in control and have the right to demand that nothing is taken without their permission.

Houses detached in their thinking

The House of Lords certainly saw it that way, voting a 147 majority to make an amendment to an existing Bill, stipulating additional transparency in light of the advances in AI.

However, just two days later, in a slap in the face for the country’s leading creative minds, the House of Commons opposed the change.

Elton’s fury

Sir Elton John, who has been extremely vocal in his opinion on the matter, pointed out that it was more than two to one in their favour from the Lords vote, but with the government failing to back them, he accused them of being on course to “rob young people of their legacy and their income”.

He said he was “very angry” about the situation and turned on Technology Secretary, Peter Kyle, in particular, labelling him “a bit of a moron”.

The iconic singer also called on the PM to “wise up” adding that if the government did not change its plans, he would be ready to take ministers to court, saying that “we’ll fight it all the way”.

“Sacrificial lambs”

The PM came in for more pressure from the chief executive of UK music, Tom Kiehl, who insisted that leader “must not sell” the next generation of singers, songwriters, musicians, and music creators “down the river” and in doing so, allow all their talent to be crushed by letting “soulless AI bots plunder their work”.

He accused the government of offering up the country’s music industry “as a sacrificial lamb in its efforts to cosy up to American-based tech giants”.

High-profile names backing the change

Confidence had been quite high prior to the vote, with more than 400 British creatives putting their names to a strongly worded letter, essentially imploring the PM to bring copyright laws up to date to counter the threat from artificial intelligence.

As well as Sir Elton, high-profile names such as: Sir Paul McCartney, Dua Lipa, Coldplay, Kate Bush and Robbie Williams were front and centre in the proposals and request for governmental support.

Critical income stream

The carefully written correspondence pointed out how “creative copyright” is the lifeblood of the creative industries, in the way that it recognizes the “moral authority” they all had over their work.

In addition, and a hugely critical part of their concerns, was how the copyright provided an income stream for as many as 2.4 million people, right across the United Kingdom.

Transparency vital

In an attempt to show that they were in favour of progress and innovation, the letter made the observation that creative industries had always been early adopters of technology.

Nevertheless, they said: “The first job of any government is to protect its citizens” and therefore altering the existing Bill to demand transparency, would have the effect of allowing not just them as creators, but also the AI developers, to adopt licensing regimes which would see the “continuation of human-created content, well into the future.”