MPs to probe AI, copyright law
January 31, 2025
By Colin Mann
The Culture, Media and Sport Committee and Science, Innovation and Technology Committee of the UK House of Commons will hold a joint evidence session on the future of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and copyright law.
The session, on February 4th, will consider the Government’s recently announced consultation on copyright and AI. MPs will examine the current legal landscape and the government’s proposals for reform, from the perspective of the AI and creative sectors.
In the first panel, MPs will hear from AI start-ups as they seek to understand more about the use of information ‘crawlers’ and the tools available to protect rights holders’ work. MPs may also explore the potential impacts of transparency requirements on AI developers and the challenges of generative AI output labelling.
MPs could ask what lessons the UK can learn from the EU’s approach to this issue and consider what potential stumbling blocks the Government is likely to face when implementing its approach.
In the second half of the session, MPs will hear from representatives of the creative industries, who will likely be questioned on the potential commercial impacts of data transparency. MPs may also consider how the Government’s proposed approach differs from past policy proposals.
Given the rapidly evolving nature of the AI landscape, highlighted by the recent news about the emergence of Chinese model ‘DeepSeek’, MPs may also ask how resilient start-up developers are to emerging challenges in AI development.
The Culture, Media and Sport Committee previously heard evidence of the challenges and opportunities presented by the use of AI tools in the British Film and High-End TV sector. The ongoing inquiry is looking at the ethical use of artificial intelligence in film-making and aims to probe the work of the BFI and the Government’s vision for the sector.
The Science, Innovation and Technology Committee’s predecessor committee published its report on the Governance of artificial intelligence in May 2024. The report concluded that in a world in which AI developers can command vast resources, UK regulators must be equipped to hold them to account.
On December 17th 2024, the Intellectual Property Office (IPO), an executive agency sponsored by the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology, launched a consultation on copyright and AI. The consultation will run for a period of 10 weeks, closing on February 25th 2025.