"Massive Unchecked Data Gathering Prohibition Blocked": The United Kingdom's fifth effort to pass a legislation that permits AI firms to collect any data they desire meets its demise in the House of Lords.
AI doesn't care about copyright? More like, it doesn't have a clue. But what's truly concerning is the US and UK governments pushing to let tech giants freely scrape data for AI purposes, with zero regard for the content creators who own that data.
The latest drama unfolds at the House of Lords, where the UK government's attempt to pass a controversial bill has been denied... for the fifth time, to be exact. The vote was 221 to 116, suggesting some pretty strong opposition to the bill.
As reported in The Guardian, Baroness Beeban Kidron argued for more transparency in the bill, stating that state-sanctioned data theft would be detrimental to UK designers, artists, authors, musicians, and AI companies. The proposed amendment suggests that businesses should disclose the text and data used in AI model training, giving copyright holders a chance to protect their intellectual property.
However, the tech industry voices strong disagreement. Sir Nick Clegg, former president of global affairs at Meta and a previous deputy prime minister of the UK, claimed the push for transparency would "kill the AI industry in this country" (as reported by the BBC). The Data (Use and Access) Bill argues that AI developers should have uninhibited access to all the content they desire, disregarding copyright owners unless they expressly opt out of data collection.
In the streets, artists bear the brunt of this debate. The lack of transparency and ominous talk of untrainable AI models are causing distress among creators who fear their rights will be violated. Unfortunately, many artists may not even be aware of their rights or the implications of being swept up by data scraping.
As the bill bounces back and forth between the House of Commons, with another vote possible this week, the standoff between the creative industries and the tech world remains unresolved. This battle for data rights is uncharted territory, with both sides digging their heels in and refusing to back down.
Meanwhile, overseas, OpenAI, the owners of ChatGPT, have been in headline news. In March, OpenAI appealed to the US government, claiming that unless it's allowed to scrape copyrighted content, America would lose out to China in the race for AI dominance. Just a few months earlier, OpenAI had even complained that a Chinese AI model had stolen data from them, data that OpenAI itself had scraped from elsewhere.
Stay tuned as we continue to monitor this evolving situation. The future of AI and copyright law is on the line, and we're watching from the front row.
- The UK government's attempt to pass a controversial bill, aimed at giving tech giants free access to data for AI purposes, has been denied at the House of Lords for the fifth time.
- Baroness Beeban Kidron argued for more transparency in the bill, suggesting that businesses should disclose the text and data used in AI model training, to protect the intellectual property rights of content creators.
- The tech industry voices strong disagreement, with Sir Nick Clegg claiming that the push for transparency would "kill the AI industry in this country."
- Artists are bearing the brunt of this debate, with the lack of transparency causing distress among creators who fear their rights will be violated.
- In the US, OpenAI, the owners of ChatGPT, have been in the news, appealing to the US government to allow them to scrape copyrighted content, claiming that without it, America will lose out to China in the race for AI dominance.
- The battle for data rights between the creative industries and the tech world remains unresolved, with both sides refusing to back down, and the future of AI and copyright law hanging in the balance.
