Leaders from across the arts, including the bosses of the Royal Shakespeare Company, Royal Albert Hall and National Theatre, have spoken out against the government’s plans to let artificial intelligence companies use artists’ work without their permission.
A UK government proposal will allow tech companies to freely use copyrighted material to train artificial intelligence models unless creative companies and professionals opt out of the process.
Those affected could include artists, authors, journalists, illustrators, photographers, filmmakers, scriptwriters, singers and songwriters, who argue that they will now have to police their work.
The proposal has already been criticised by Sir Paul McCartney, Andrew Lloyd Webber, Dua Lipa and Stephen Fry, and now more than 30 performing arts bosses have shared a statement urging the government to support the “moral and economic” rights of the creative community across music, drama, dance and opera.
The statement’s 35 signatories include the chief executives of the Sadler’s Wells Theatre, City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, Leeds Playhouse and Opera North.
They pointed out that many creatives work in a fragile freelance landscape, whom “reply on copyright to sustain their practice”.
The statement said: “We join with many in the creative community in expressing our concern about the government’s plans to diminish creative copyright by giving an exemption to AI companies.”
The signatories asked MPs to give creative professionals automatic rights over their work, rather than implementing the proposal, which would automatically give tech companies the rights to creative work unless the person behind the work opts out of the process.
It has also been requested that the government implement more transparency surrounding what copyrighted material is being absorbed by AI models, and how they acquired it.
“The sheer wonderment of world-class music, drama, dance and opera is essential to the joy of being human. We urge the government to support the human creative endeavour at its heart,” said the performing arts leaders.
A lack of clarity around whether it is right and fair that copyright material be used to train the models has sparked debate around the world, with legal cases launched by firms and individuals in the creative industry over what they argue is unlicensed use of their material.
Paul McCartney echoed similar concern in a radio interview last month, warning ministers: “We’re the people, you’re the government. You’re supposed to protect us. That’s your job.”
“So you know, if you’re putting through a bill, make sure you protect the creative thinkers, the creative artists, or you’re not going to have them.”
Also protesting the proposed changes to copyright law, more than 1,000 musicians including Kate Bush, Annie Lennox and Damon Albarn have come together to record a silent album.
Billy Ocean, The Clash, Jamiroquai, Imogen Heap and a range of composers, conductors, singers and producers have co-written the album, which includes a number of Oscar, Grammy and Brit Award winners.
The track listing spells out the message: “The British government must not legalise music theft to benefit AI companies.”
All profits will be donated to the musicians’ charity, Help Musicians.
Generative AI models are trained by being fed data to inform their responses. The main source for this material is currently the web, with AI models like the popular tool ChatGPT pulling information from digital newspaper articles, Wikipedia and online archives.
