The committee's call to action comes as tech firms, including OpenAI, are facing lawsuits for alleged copyright infringement. OpenAI, the developer of the ChatGPT chatbot, has been accused of "systematic theft on a mass scale" by a group of writers, including John Grisham. The committee also warns of a period of "technological turbulence" due to AI and urges the government to prevent market power from being concentrated in the hands of a few companies.
Key takeaways:
- A House of Lords committee has urged ministers to protect content creators whose work is being used without permission by tech firms to develop AI products, such as chatbots, generating significant financial rewards.
- The committee stated that the current UK legal framework is failing to enforce copyright principles amid a surge in AI development. It recommended the government to decide whether copyright law provides enough protection to copyright holders and to update the legislation if necessary.
- The government's intellectual property office is developing a code of practice on copyright and AI. The committee also suggested that the UK could provide licensed datasets to AI firms for legally secure model building.
- OpenAI, the US-based developer of the ChatGPT chatbot, is being sued for alleged copyright infringement by the New York Times and several authors. The company argued that it would be impossible to create tools like ChatGPT without access to copyrighted material.