UK Delays AI Copyright Decision
The UK government appears likely to delay decisive action on regulating AI's use of copyrighted material, with the House of Lords warning that poorly designed reforms could harm the creative sector. Critics warn continued inaction will disadvantage human creators most as AI-generated content proliferates without adequate safeguards or compensation.
The delay comes in response to a new House of Lords report that warns against sacrificing the UK's "outstanding creative capacity for speculative AI gains". The report, titled “AI, copyright and the creative industries,” argues that weakening copyright law would be a "poor bet" against the £124 billion the creative sector contributed to the UK economy in 2023. In contrast, the AI sector contributed just under £12 billion in 2024. A government consultation on the issue revealed that a staggering 88% of respondents favored requiring licenses for all uses of copyrighted material in AI training. Only 3% supported the government's previously preferred option: a data mining exception that would allow AI developers to use copyrighted works unless creators actively opted out. The House of Lords committee has urged ministers to formally rule out this "opt-out" proposal. Instead, they strongly recommend a "licensing-first" approach, creating a fair market for AI developers to pay for the creative works they use. This would be underpinned by a statutory obligation for AI companies to be transparent about the data used to train their models. Ministers have reportedly decided to go back to the drawing board, acknowledging the significant opposition from the UK's creative industries. The government's official response to the consultation, along with an economic impact assessment, is expected to be published by March 18, 2026, but any new legislation is now unlikely to be introduced before the next year.
