Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, if she will require operators of generative AI models to seek approval from authors for using any published materials available online prior to using such materials for their own purposes.

The UK Copyright regime is clear about the rights holders’ intellectual property rights. Works can only be used where permission is granted or where there is an existing exception in copyright law. It is possible for rights holders to license the use of their copyright protected works for AI training at the moment, or to protect their works from being used, but we are aware that this can be difficult in practice for individual firms and creators. Responses to our consultation on the impact of AI on the copyright regime, which was published on Tuesday 17 December and closed on 25 February, will inform our approach to the design and delivery of a solution to this issue.

We will now consider the full range of responses we have received through our consultation. Addressing this is an urgent priority for the Department for Culture, Media and Sport and the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology, but no decisions will be taken until we are absolutely confident we have a practical plan that delivers each of our objectives.