The House of Lords’ Communications and Digital Committee has published a major report warning that the UK creative industries “face a clear and present danger from generative AI”.

The report is the culmination of the Committee’s most recent inquiry into AI, copyright, and the creative industries, which was launched to “feed into the Government’s ongoing work on copyright and AI” (discussed here). Among other things, the Committee sought to explore how rightsholders could protect their works against unauthorised use by AI developers, how transparent and accountable AI developers should be, and how mechanisms such as licensing, attribution, and labelling tools can help the creative industries to protect their works in the brave new world of generative AI.

The Report’s findings are stark: the Committee warns that the creative industries – which contribute £124 billion to the economy and employ 2.4 million people – are under threat, arguing that “while generative AI may present opportunities for creative innovation and further growth where appropriate safeguards are in place, it also poses substantial material risks to the work and livelihoods of individual creators. The impact of these is already being felt”.

A central focus of the Report is on the ongoing debate about whether the UK’s copyright framework should be reformed in response to generative AI. The Committee could not be clearer in its position that any reform that would see a weakening of the rights of creators should be rejected. It added that it was unconvinced by arguments that, without changes to the copyright regime (such as a possible broader new text and data mining exception so that AI companies can train on works protected by copyright) the AI sector will be stunted.

Where the Committee does push for reform is in the context of AI generating works ‘in the style of’ creators, which can often imitate their “distinctive style, voice, or persona without reproducing a specific underlying work”. As we have commented upon here in the context of deepfakes, the Report notes that there are “gaps in protection for style imitation and digital identity”, and it therefore examines possible responses, including the introduction of personality rights.

Whilst the Committee does not go so far as to explicitly call for personality rights to be introduced to the UK, the Report concludes that the Government should introduce protections which give creators and performers “clear enforceable control over the commercial exploitation of their identity, while appropriately safeguarding freedom of expression and other legitimate uses”.

The Report also covers a number of other important areas in considerable detail, including transparency requirements for AI companies, the emergence of technical solutions that allow creators to control the use of their works, and how a licensing market can develop.

It then sets out its main recommendations to the Government as follows:

1. Rule out a new commercial text and data mining (TDM) exception with an opt-out model;

2. Close gaps in the law by introducing protections against unauthorised digital replicas and harmful ‘in the style of’ AI outputs;

3. Establish a clear, mandatory transparency framework for UK AI developers;

4. Create the conditions for a fair and inclusive UK licensing market; and

5. Prioritise the development and adoption of sovereign AI models.

Commenting on the Report, the Chair of the Committee, Baroness Keely, said:

“The future for AI in the UK should be based on transparent and responsible use of training data. We are calling on the Government to embrace the opportunities this presents, and to demonstrate its commitment to the UK’s gold-standard copyright regime and our outstanding creative industries in its forthcoming economic assessment and update on AI and copyright”.

To read the Report in full, click here.