A Government minister has quoted AI-generated Adele lyrics to draw attention to how bots can come up with versions of existing artists’ songs without paying them any money.
Technology minister Sir Chris Bryant read out lines from a non-existent song by the Grammy-award winning British singer that he had got an AI company to write, as he announced a consultation on potential new copyright protections for creative industries to stop AI bots from using their material for free.
Sir Chris said the issue posed an “existential threat” for the British music, film, literary and gaming industries.
“‘Oh I still feel you, deep in my soul. Even though you left me out here on my own, the love we had it’s slipping through my hands, but I can’t forget, I still don’t understand. You’re gone, but your memory is all I see, and in the silence, it’s you haunting me’.
“It’s sort of Adele isn’t it? But it’s not Adele. And again, my question goes, so does Adele know that her material has been used, does her record label know that her lyrics have been used to create that. Because it’s sort of in the territory, but it’s not right.
“I think we can get this right in the UK and provide leadership to the world, that’s what we should strive for.”
The outcome of the consultation could make it easier for the creative industries to gain copyright protections over their work, meaning that if AI firms want to use their work to train their machines, they would have to pay.
Legal cases have already been launched by firms and individuals over what they argue is unlicensed use of their material.
In contrast, some publishing organisations and media outlets have signed licensing deals with AI firms to allow them to use their material to train their models. Some AI firms in Britain have said it’s difficult to train models with the currently vague laws.
Sir Chris said: “If we were to adopt a too-tight regime, based on proactive explicit permission, the danger is that international developers would continue to train their models using UK content accessed overseas but may not be able to deploy them in the UK.
“As AI becomes increasingly powerful and widely adopted globally, this could significantly disadvantage sectors across our economy, including the creative industries and sweep the rug from underneath British AI developers.”
He added: “Many people have called this question an existential one for the creative industries. They are right.
“We see this consultation, therefore, as a pivotal opportunity to ensure that sustained growth and innovation for the UK’s AI sector continues to benefit creators, businesses and consumers alike, while preserving the values and principles that make our creative industries so unique.”
Sir Julian said: “I’m tempted to invite the minister to perhaps consult the magnificent Taylor Swift who, apart from all her many other talents, has shown herself pretty shrewd when it comes to preserving the copyright of her own material.
“He actually puts his finger on the key weakness in all this, no matter what sort of regime you set up, and no matter how many countries you try to get involved in all of this, surely it will only take one rogue jurisdiction to allow a machine to scrape from everybody else’s material and then the ability of the internet for everybody to access it will undermine the regime and, in that way, we face the danger that Shake It Off becomes Rip It Off.”
Sir Chris replied: “There is an argument that you can train it elsewhere, in another jurisdiction, but the moment you bring it into the UK, then you still fall under UK legislation.”
