UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer has said publishers should have control over their content and that artificial intelligence companies should pay when they use their work.
In an article marking the launch of the ‘News Media Association’s Journalism Matters’ campaign, Starmer said journalism is the “lifeblood of democracy” and that the “sector’s provision of trustworthy information is more vital than ever.” Starmer vowed to “champion press freedoms” and the creative industries as AI starts to transform our “economy and way of life.”
“We recognise the basic principle that publishers should have control over and seek payment for their work, including when thinking about the role of AI,” Starmer said.
‘An Existential Threat’
Starmer’s letter puts the government at the heart of a growing policy dispute over AI training data. Ministers have come under increasing pressure from publishers and creatives over government plans to allow tech firms to train AI models using scraped online content by default.
Organisations including the BBC and Mumsnet have opposed the plans and warned that requiring creators and publishers to “opt out” of scraping is impractical, burdensome and risks the government “giving in” to pressure from ‘Big Tech’. Smaller publishers say an “opt out” model would diminish their ability to negotiate licensing deals and empower companies that pose an “existential threat” to their very survival.
Starmer’s comments come weeks after he said Britain “needs to run towards” the opportunities offered by artificial intelligence. “Are we leaning in and seeing this as an opportunity, as I do? Or are we leaning out, saying ‘this is rather scary, we better regulate it,’ which I think will be the wrong approach,” he said.
A Balancing Act
Meanwhile, Big Tech companies like Google, Microsoft and Meta have defended their use of copyrighted materials to train AI models as both permissible under the law and necessary for technological progress. Microsoft-backed ChatGPT maker OpenAI, for example, has said it would be “impossible” to build top-tier systems without using copyrighted material and Google, whose Gemini is one of the world’s leading AI models, has warned the UK could fall behind other countries unless it relaxes its intellectual property laws.
Tech firms are facing more and more barriers from publishers keen to ringfence content from use in training datasets, as well as a growing number of copyright lawsuits over scraped data. Many AI companies are proactively striking licensing deals to use content to proceed and are actively lobbying governments globally to secure legal exemptions for using copyrighted material to train generative AI models.
The issue is shaping up to be one of the most prominent AI policy debates since ChatGPT took the world by storm in 2022. Starmer has sought to position the UK centrally and said his government hopes to strike a middle ground that will keep both the tech and creative industries happy. The prime minister stressed both creative and tech sectors are vital for driving economic growth and both central to the government’s mission.
“To strike balance in our industrial policy, we are working closely with both sectors,” Starmer said. “Both artificial intelligence and the creative industries – which includes news and media – are central to this government’s driving mission on economic growth.”