Federation of European Publishers welcomes adoption of the AI Act

The Federation of European Publishers (FEP) has welcomed a vote in favour of the EU Artificial Intelligence (AI) Act that took place today at the Committee of Permanent Representatives in the European Union. 

The vote sees EU countries agree on the technical details of the AI Act but now needs a sign-off from EU lawmakers before the rules enter into force. 

The AI Act introduces basic obligations in the field of copyright. It says general purpose AI (such as generative AI) must respect copyright law and have policies in place to this effect. It will also ensure that these AI are transparent on the data used for their training. 

The FEP says this transparency obligation “is essential to allow publishers to enforce their rights and ensure that their works have not been used illegally for the training of an AI”. It will complement existing copyright obligations, that notably allow rights-holders to opt out their works from text and data mining uses and support the development of a licensing eco-system. 

Ricardo Franco Levi, president of FEP, said: “In a context where, both in the EU and internationally, the abuses of AI are more and more documented and contested, the EU has once again the opportunity to set a world standard in digital regulation, and allow AI to unleash its potential without infringing the rights of others.” 

The Lords Committee AI report was also published in the UK today (2nd February, 2024), calling on the government to take urgent action against copyrighted material being used to train Large Language Models (LLMs). It was welcomed by trade bodies The Publishers Association (PA) and Publishers’ Licensing Services (PLS).