With under a week until the government’s consultation on Artificial Intelligence (AI) and copyright ends, more than 2,500 responses have been received so far, The Bookseller can exclusively reveal.
In December, the UK government launched a consultation process “on proposals to give creative industries and AI developers clarity over copyright laws”, including “an exception to copyright law for AI training for commercial purposes”.
The proposals include a “preferred option” that would essentially allow tech companies access to copyrighted works to train AI tools unless the creator has opted out.
The Bookseller understands that the government’s Intellectual Property Office (IPO) has so far received more than 2,500 responses to the consultation which closes on Tuesday 25th February. The results will be reviewed and published in line with Cabinet Office guidelines when the consultation has closed.
The cross-bench peer Baroness Beeban Kidron told The Bookseller in an interview to be published in full on Friday: “The [government] has been overwhelmed by the response to the consultation. I believe the IPO has asked for permission to use AI to summarise the responses. I’m not actually going to say whether I think that’s a good or bad idea, but I think what will be interesting is whether the formulation of the questions [in the consultation document], with a preferred option mentioned in the first few paragraphs, to see whether it will encourage the AI to come to a foregone conclusion.”
In late January, the House of Lords voted against the government to add provisions tabled by Baroness Kidron to a Data Bill that – as opposed to weakening copyright law, as proposed in the AI consultation – would make the existing copyright framework enforceable. The amendments passed by 145 to 126, despite Labour whipping against and the Tories whipping to abstain. The Bill was debated at second reading in the House of Commons on Wednesday 12 February and has now been sent to a Public Bill Committee which will scrutinise the Bill line by line and is expected to report to the House by Tuesday 18th March 2025.
Writing in The Bookseller last week, the Baroness said: “I can think of no government policy in any other sector that makes a citizen or business proactively opt out of the market – a corner shop from which you can steal, unless they post a message saying you must not. There is no dictate from government that suggests that software licences, travel tickets or drugs must be given away for free unless you withdraw them from the marketplace.”
A government spokesperson told The Bookseller: “It’s important that everyone remains open minded about this consultation and what it could deliver for all parties. As it stands, the UK’s current regime for copyright and AI is holding back the creative industries and AI sector from realising their full potential — and that cannot continue. That’s why we are consulting on a new approach that protects the interests of both AI developers and right holders.
“This consultation remains open and is part of an ongoing conversation, and no move will be made until we are absolutely confident we have a practical plan that delivers each of our objectives: increased control for right holders to help them license their content, access to high-quality material to train leading AI models in the UK, and more transparency for right holders from AI developers.”