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Leading AI companies OpenAI and Google have rejected the U.K. government’s preferred solution to the thorny issue of AI and copyright.
Their positions, set out in responses to a consultation which closed in February, will pile further pressure on the government over the proposals, which have already sparked protests from creatives and lawmakers.
The submissions were requested by the U.K. parliament’s Science, Innovation and Technology Committee, after representatives of both companies declined to give evidence to MPs on their respective positions.
The government’s “preferred option” in the consultation proposed amending copyright law to allow AI companies to train their models on public content for commercial purposes without permission from rights holders, unless rights holders “reserve their rights” by opting out.
The changes would be coupled with greater transparency requirements on AI firms, according to the government’s proposal.
POLITICO has reported that ministers plan to commit to publishing reviews into technical solutions for how these conditions could be met in a bid to quell criticism of the plans.
But in its response to the consultation, OpenAI said experience from other jurisdictions including the EU shows that opt-out models face “significant implementation challenges,” while transparency obligations could see developers “deprioritize the market.”
“The U.K. has a rare opportunity to cement itself as the AI capital of Europe by making choices that avoid policy uncertainty, foster innovation, and drive economic growth,” the company said, calling for a broad copyright exemption.
In its response, Google said rights holders can already effectively exercise “choice and control” to prevent web crawlers from scraping content online, but suggested those who opt out of AI training would not necessarily have a right to remuneration if they still appeared in a model’s training data.
“We believe training on the open web must be free,” the company said.
It also warned that “excessive transparency requirements... could hinder AI development and impact the UK’s competitiveness in this space.”
Last month, Google and OpenAI both urged the White House to oppose efforts by foreign governments to impose burdensome copyright and transparency obligations in submissions to a U.S. AI Action Plan.
The U.K. government has received over 11,000 responses to its consultation. A spokesperson for the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology previously told POLITICO no final decisions have been made.
“We are carefully considering the consultation responses and continue to engage with tech companies, the creative industries, and Parliament to inform our approach,” they said.
“We have always been clear that no changes will be made until we are absolutely confident we have a practical plan that delivers on each of our objectives.”
Source: https://www.politico.eu/article/openai-google-reject-uks-ai-copyright-plan/
Their positions, set out in responses to a consultation which closed in February, will pile further pressure on the government over the proposals, which have already sparked protests from creatives and lawmakers.
The submissions were requested by the U.K. parliament’s Science, Innovation and Technology Committee, after representatives of both companies declined to give evidence to MPs on their respective positions.
The government’s “preferred option” in the consultation proposed amending copyright law to allow AI companies to train their models on public content for commercial purposes without permission from rights holders, unless rights holders “reserve their rights” by opting out.
The changes would be coupled with greater transparency requirements on AI firms, according to the government’s proposal.
POLITICO has reported that ministers plan to commit to publishing reviews into technical solutions for how these conditions could be met in a bid to quell criticism of the plans.
But in its response to the consultation, OpenAI said experience from other jurisdictions including the EU shows that opt-out models face “significant implementation challenges,” while transparency obligations could see developers “deprioritize the market.”
“The U.K. has a rare opportunity to cement itself as the AI capital of Europe by making choices that avoid policy uncertainty, foster innovation, and drive economic growth,” the company said, calling for a broad copyright exemption.
In its response, Google said rights holders can already effectively exercise “choice and control” to prevent web crawlers from scraping content online, but suggested those who opt out of AI training would not necessarily have a right to remuneration if they still appeared in a model’s training data.
“We believe training on the open web must be free,” the company said.
It also warned that “excessive transparency requirements... could hinder AI development and impact the UK’s competitiveness in this space.”
Last month, Google and OpenAI both urged the White House to oppose efforts by foreign governments to impose burdensome copyright and transparency obligations in submissions to a U.S. AI Action Plan.
The U.K. government has received over 11,000 responses to its consultation. A spokesperson for the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology previously told POLITICO no final decisions have been made.
“We are carefully considering the consultation responses and continue to engage with tech companies, the creative industries, and Parliament to inform our approach,” they said.
“We have always been clear that no changes will be made until we are absolutely confident we have a practical plan that delivers on each of our objectives.”
Source: https://www.politico.eu/article/openai-google-reject-uks-ai-copyright-plan/
