Musicians have warned that Government proposals to change UK copyright law to allow AI models to be more easily trained on copyrighted material would greatly damage the creative sector and see artists replaced in the long term.
Ed Newton-Rex, the organiser of the album, said: “The government’s proposal would hand the life’s work of the country’s musicians to AI companies, for free, letting those companies exploit musicians’ work to outcompete them.
Although some AI firms have since started making deals to license content, many existing AI models have been trained using data from the public internet, including from news and other publishing websites, which has led to many from that sector also speaking out against the proposed changes to the law.
“We already contribute £11 billion to the UK economy and are central to creative industries’ growth and UK research and development and are early adopters of AI technology to equip the readers and learners of the future.
Dan Conway, chief executive of the Publishers Association, the trade organisation representing book, journal and electronic publishers in the UK, said: “The extraordinary strength of support shown in recent weeks for copyright and our world-class creative industries is something the Government ignores at its peril.
