Considerations about the Government AI Consultation

The Musicians' Union is cautious about the government consultation currently going on in regard to copyrighted material being used to train generative artificial intelligence (genAI). The consultation is a direct successor of a government-proposed exception that saw the light in 2023, and didn't go through due to strong opposition from the creative industry. The difference this time is that the government has outlined a way for right holders to prevent their works from being used to train AI systems. Alternatively, they could opt to negotiate a presumably paid licence for their use.

In the realm of music, the right holders are mainly record labels and publishers. However, musicians who signed their contracts and transferred their rights before the boom of genAI had no way to foresee the weight this technology would have in the cultural landscape and industry, or the impact its use would have in their revenue. For this reason, the Musicians' Union advocates for each creator having the right to decide individually whether they want their music used for genAI training. 

Beyond this, though, there are more critical questions that the government must answer. At the moment, genAI developers are not required to be transparent about the material they use to train their models, nor to disclose that a published piece is the output of a genAI process. In this scenario, how would the right to withdraw permission and/or of licencing material work? Who will be in charge of checking if the material used for genAI training has been properly licenced? What will be done when an infraction is identified? A clear, effective and enforceable legal framework is vital to solve the issues brought up by this technology.

The consultation closes on 25th February 2025 at 11:59pm. You can read it in full and answer to it following this link. The Musicians' Union statement about the consultation can be found on their website.