• by Ray Schultz , May 9, 2024

The UK Publisher’s Association has harshly criticized the government’s stance on AI and copyright infringement.

In February, the House of Lords select committee on generative artificial intelligence and large language models came out with a report on the subject. But critics are far from satisfied with it, according to Publishing Perspectives.

“Despite strong calls from the Lords Communications Committee and good-faith engagement by the creative industries, we still do not see any tangible commitments to protect the creative industries against mass copyright infringement in this response,” says Dan Conway, CEO of the UK Publishers Association, according to Publishing Perspectives. 

“The government’s record on copyright is inadequate and deteriorating,” adds the Baroness Stowell of Beeston. “We appreciate the technical and political complexities of the challenge. But we are not persuaded the government is investing enough creativity, resources and senior political heft to address the problem.”

The debate is no less harsh in North America. 

Jurisdictions like Canada that have enacted legislation requiring technology giants like Meta to pay publishers for use of their content have had their news access cut off.

Last month, Google blocked some links in response to a bill being considered: The California Journalism Protection Act. 

There has also been private litigation. For example, the New York Times and Gannett have each sued Microsoft and OpenAI. The Times alleges that the defendants utilized large-language models “that were built by copying and using millions of The Times’s copyrighted news articles, in-depth investigations, opinion pieces, reviews, how-to guides, and more.”