Asked by: Kevin Brennan (Labour - Cardiff West)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, whether she has made an assessment of the impact of private copy levy schemes on the creative sector in the European Union.
Answered by Saqib Bhatti - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
The Government has made no recent assessment of the impact of private copy levy schemes on the creative sector in the European Union.
The 3rd Trade Specialised Committee on Intellectual Property under the EU-UK Trade and Cooperation Agreement discussed Private Copying Levies on 23 October 2023 and the Minutes were published on gov.uk here.
Asked by: Kevin Brennan (Labour - Cardiff West)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, whether she plans to invite representatives from creative industries to the London AI Summit.
Answered by Paul Scully
The UK believes that the dangers of frontier AI risks are increasingly urgent. This includes risks such as biosecurity and cybersecurity, including from the potential misuse of models by non-state actors. This will be the focus of the AI Safety Summit and the invitee list will reflect this theme. The Government is working on wider AI-related risks including those associated with the creative industries through the Creative Industries Sector Vision and via work with the Intellectual Property Office (IPO) to get the balance right in supporting Government’s ambitions on AI innovation without critically undermining value for rights holders.
The government set out its ambitions for the Summit in greater detail at the start of September, and we look forward to sharing more details in due course.
Asked by: Kevin Brennan (Labour - Cardiff West)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, what recent estimate she has made of when the Intellectual Property Office will publish its code of conduct on copyright and artificial intelligence.
Answered by George Freeman
The working group on copyright and AI has asked the Intellectual Property Office for more time to prepare a draft code of practice. A progress update will be published on GOV.UK shortly.
Asked by: Kevin Brennan (Labour - Cardiff West)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, whether it is her Department’s policy that companies using copyrighted data to train artificial intelligence models must seek appropriate licences.
Answered by George Freeman
The copyright framework is relevant whenever copyright works are copied. Permission or a licence should be obtained unless an exception applies.
Asked by: Kevin Brennan (Labour - Cardiff West)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, whether she hold discussions with her international counterparts on the use of unlicensed data to train artificial intelligence models at the global summit on Artificial Intelligence.
Answered by Paul Scully
The UK will host the first major global Summit on AI safety this autumn.
The Summit will bring together key countries, as well as leading technology companies and researchers, to drive targeted, rapid international action to guarantee safety and security at the frontier of this technology.
The Summit will seek to agree on the safety measures needed to evaluate and monitor the most significant risks emerging from the newest developments in AI technologies.
Decisions are ongoing regarding the agenda for the Summit and we look forward to updating the House further as our preparations continue.
With regards specifically to data and AI, as a government, we want to make the UK a world leader in research and AI innovation, whilst ensuring that the UK copyright framework continues to promote and reward investment in creativity. To enable that, the government is supporting the growth of the creative industries through a number of IP-related initiatives, including the IPO’s Counter Infringement Strategy, to ensure IP rights are protected online.
Asked by: Kevin Brennan (Labour - Cardiff West)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, with reference to the oral evidence of the Prime Minister to the Liaison Committee on 4 July 2023, HC1602, what steps her Department is taking to implement the (a) reporting and (b) licensing of large training runs for artificial intelligence.
Answered by Paul Scully
It is clear that the right guardrails must be in place to manage the risks AI poses. Our proportionate regulatory framework, underpinned by a set of principles and supported by tools like AI assurance techniques and technical standards, sets out a responsible approach to AI innovation. The Government also made it clear in our AI regulation white paper that our approach must be adaptable. As we now look to implement the new regulatory regime, we are considering how the framework will apply to the various actors in the AI development and deployment lifecycle, with a particular focus on foundation models.
This is supported by the £100 million Foundation Model Taskforce led by Ian Hogarth, as well as a new central risk function and international leadership on AI safety through the AI summit.
Our proposed central functions, including risk analysis, horizon scanning, and monitoring and evaluation, will keep the wider landscape under constant review to inform policy. They will capture emerging risks, including risks arising from increasingly powerful foundation models. The Foundation Model Taskforce will meanwhile advance vital safety research, laying the groundwork for the safe adoption of AI across the UK economy, ensuring we are at the forefront of this pivotal technology.
The UK will host the first major global summit on AI safety this autumn. The Summit will bring together key countries, as well as leading technology companies and researchers, to drive targeted, rapid international action to guarantee safety and security at the frontier of this technology.
As the Prime Minister told the Liaison Committee, the Government continues to analyse a range of safety features and guard rails that we could put in place. These could include new measures for the reporting and licensing of large training runs. But it is vital that the effectiveness of any proposals are rigorously evaluated before they are implemented. This is why we welcome the wide range of stakeholders that provided insights to our consultation on the AI regulation white paper. We are currently considering all evidence sent to the consultation and we will provide an update through the Government's response later in the year.