PA welcomes government's response to the Regulation of AI White Paper Consultation

The Publishers Association (PA) has welcomed the government’s response to the Regulation of AI White Paper consultation, noting “it is good to see publishers’ role in engaging with government acknowledged so prominently".

The response reinforces the government’s “firmly pro-innovation" approach to AI. It said: “In the coming months, we will formally establish our activities to support regulator capabilities and co-ordination, including a new steering committee with government and regulator representatives to support co-ordination across the AI governance landscape. We will conduct targeted consultations on our cross-economy AI risk register and plan to assess the regulatory framework.” 

The report noted that The Department for Culture, Media & Sport (DCMS) is working closely with publishers, the music industry, and other creative businesses to understand the impact of AI on these sectors, with a view to mitigating risks and capitalising on opportunities.  

It recognised that the creative industries and media organisations “have particular concerns regarding copyright protections in the era of generative AI”, noting a particular concern about the large-scale use of copyright protected content for training AI models. These industries have called for assurance that their ability to retain autonomy and control over their valuable work will be protected. “At the same time, AI developers have emphasised that they need to be able to easily access a wide range of high-quality datasets to develop and train cutting-edge AI systems in the UK” the government said.  

Responding, Dan Conway, c.e.o. at the PA, said: “We called on government to recognise issues around the use of intellectual property (IP) in its approach to AI, and so are pleased to see ministers stepping up to finding a solution that allows the AI and creative sectors to grow in partnership. Government has rightly recognised in its response that AI development should not undermine human creativity but supports it alongside innovation and the provision of trustworthy information. AI developers must adhere to a level of transparency around IP and the way in which it has been used, and we are pleased to see mechanisms being discussed to ensure this will happen. However, government must also acknowledge the need for retrospective action and compensation where rights-holders’ work has already been used, together with licensing and attribution, in the future.” 

He added: “We look forward to working closely and collaboratively with ministers in the coming months to secure progress and effective solutions for rights-holders.  

“As a sector, we welcome innovation at all levels. Publishers from across the spectrum are integrating AI into their businesses in many ways and will continue to do so. We must, however, ensure that this is safe and ultimately fair for everyone.” 

Last week, the PA and Publishers’ Licensing Services (PLS) welcomed the Lords Committee AI report which called on the government to take urgent action against copyrighted material being used to train Large Language Models (LLMs).

The Committee of Permanent Representatives in the European Union also voted in favour of the EU Artificial Intelligence (AI) Act last week. The vote sees EU countries agree on the technical details of the AI Act but now needs a sign-off from EU law-makers 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.