Government plans to allow AI companies to use news content to train artificial intelligence models without permission or remuneration have been dealt a blow in the House of Lords.
Peers voted 145 to 126, majority 19, in favour of a package of amendments to the Data (Use and Access) Bill aiming to tackle the unauthorised use of intellectual property by big tech companies scraping data for AI.
Proposing the amendments, digital rights campaigner Baroness Kidron said they would help enforce existing property rights by improving transparency and laying out a redress procedure.
The measures would explicitly subject AI companies to UK copyright law, regardless of where they are based, reveal the names and owners of web crawlers that currently operate anonymously and allow copyright owners to know when, where and how their work is used.
This, she said, would “protect the incomes of the UK’s second most valuable industrial sector”.
News publishers whose content has been used to train AI models are currently navigating whether to sue over the unauthorised use of their content or to instead strike deals with the AI firms.
The latest generative AI startup, China-based Deepseek, appears to answer user questions making extensive use of publisher material without citation or links.
‘Without adequate transparency, control and reward… publishers will no longer be able to invest in the creation of original, high-quality investigative content’
Kidron’s group of amendments received cross-party support, with both Labour and Conservative peers rebelling against their own front benches to back the measures.
The move comes after the Government suggested it may introduce an exemption to copyright law for “text and data mining”. A consultation on the issue is currently underway and is due to end on February 25.
Backing the amendments, deputy chairman of the Telegraph Media Group, Tory peer Lord Black of Brentwood said: “An effective, enforceable and comprehensive copyright regime is absolutely fundamental to the sustainability of a free, independent media. Without it, the media cannot survive.
“Without adequate transparency, control and reward, I have this stark warning: publishers will no longer be able to invest as they have in the creation of original, high-quality investigative content on which our democracy and the accountability of those in power is based.”
He added: “I am deeply disappointed that the long-standing commitment of my party to upholding the value of a free press and supporting the sustainability of the British media has not extended to formal support for these amendments – it is incredibly short-sighted.”
Independent crossbench peer Kidron said the Government’s stated preferred option of an “opt-out” system, in which content online is automatically eligible for AI companies to copy, would simply “give away other people’s living and their VAT contribution to the Treasury and with it the jobs, joy and soft power of our creative industries that our country relies on globally”.
Lady Kidron, who is an advisor to the Institute of Ethics in AI at Oxford University, added: “What we have before us is the most extraordinary sight of a Labour Government transferring wealth directly from 2.4 million individual creatives, SMEs and UK brands on the promise of vague riches in the future.
“There is a role in our economy for AI… and therhttps://pressgazette.co.uk/subject/news-media-association/e is an opportunity for growth in the combination of AI and creative industries, but this forced marriage on slave terms is not it.
“We have a Government who puts growth front and centre, stunting one of its most lucrative industries.
“And we have the equally extraordinary sight of the Conservatives opposite who, for the most part, are sitting on their hands against the wishes of many in their tribe, putting party ahead of country, because they prefer to have proof of the Government’s economic incompetence rather than protect the property rights of its citizens and creative industries…
“I do however think that, given the scale of the theft and the audacity of the robber barons, (creatives) should be able to turn to the government for protection, rather than suggesting we redefine the notion of theft.”
Government urged to listen to concerns as bill moves back to Commons
News Media Association chief executive Owen Meredith welcomed the news, saying: “Peers have rightly given their strong backing to the creative industries by voting decisively for measures proposed by Baroness Kidron, which support continued growth of great British cultural assets and industries, while also supporting the growth and deployment of AI.
“These should serve as a warning to government against ill-judged plans to weaken our gold standard copyright regime and hand over copyrighted material carte blanche to AI firms.
“As the Bill moves to the Commons, the government must listen to concerns, with a clear view from the Lords, and work with rights holders across the creative sector to support the best of British and strengthen our gold standard copyright law so that content creators can continue to thrive.”
Meredith wrote for Press Gazette last month criticising the government’s “opt-out” plans for the AI copyright regime, saying it would “sow confusion and enable generative AI companies to shirk their responsibilities, as we have seen under EU law where this approach has been taken”.
Shadow technology minister Viscount Camrose said of the Lords vote: “Given the importance of getting this right, our view is that the Government’s consultation is in mid-flight and we have to allow it to do its work… It offers, for now, a way forward that will evidence some of the very serious concerns expressed here.
“That said, we will take a great interest in the progress and outcome of that consultation and will come back to this in future should the Government’s response to the consultation prove unsatisfactory.”
Responding, technology minister Lord Vallance of Balham said: “Rest assured the Government understands the very strong and legitimate concern which creators and right-holders have about how their content is used by the AI sector and how powerless they often feel.
“We want to create stronger, practical ways for them to control the use of content and greater transparency over it and how it is used as well as creating the right conditions for AI innovation.
“There needs to be workable solutions and workable means workable for the creators as well as the AI companies.”
He added: “Legislating on transparency, web crawlers, watermarks or other issues without evidence on their impact or the type of technologies, oversight and enforcement needed to make them work would be premature.”
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