Opt out or get scraped: UK’s AI copyright shake-up has Elton John, Dua Lipa fighting back

Opt out or get scraped: UK’s AI copyright shake-up has Elton John, Dua Lipa fighting back


Sir Elton John (right) performs at the Verizon Center in Washington, D.C.

Kyle Gustafson | For The Washington Post | Getty Images

Celebrity musicians from Elton John to Dua Lipa are urging the U.K. government to rethink controversial plans to reform copyright laws that allow artificial intelligence developers access to rights-protected content.

An open letter signed by John, Lipa and a host of other high-profile artists, this weekend called on Prime Minister Keir Starmer to back an amendment proposed by U.K. lawmaker Beeban Kidron to make the legal framework around AI model makers’ use of copyrighted content more strict.

“We are wealth creators, we reflect and promote the national stories, we are the innovators of the future, and AI needs us as much as it needs energy and computer skills,” they said in the letter.

“We will lose an immense growth opportunity if we give our work away at the behest of a handful of powerful overseas tech companies.”

What is the UK proposing?

Late last year, the U.K. government kicked off a consultation on proposals that would give tech giants and AI labs like OpenAI a legally sound way of using copyrighted content to train their advanced foundational models.

Under the proposals, artists would have to opt out of having their copyright-protected works from being scraped by large language models. LLMs like OpenAI’s GPT-4 and Google’s Gemini rely on huge amounts of data to generate humanlike responses in the form of text, images, video and audio.

Perplexity AI faces copyright lawsuits from media companies

This led to concerns from the U.K.’s creative industries, as it would mean placing the onus on content creators to request not to have their data used for the training of AI models — which, they argue, would amount to giving their valuable work away.

‘Our work is not yours to give away’

The open letter published on Saturday calls on the government to embrace an amendment put forward by Beeban Kidron, a lawmaker in the upper house of U.K. Parliament.

The amendment would require tech giants and AI labs to tell copyright owners which individual works they have used to train their AI models — and, according to the letter, “put transparency at the heart of the copyright regime and allow both AI developers and creators to develop licensing regimes that will allow for human-created content well into the future.”

“To parliamentarians on all sides of the political spectrum and in both Houses, we urge you to vote in support of the UK creative industries,” the letter reads. “Supporting us supports the creators of the future. Our work is not yours to give away.”

The U.K.’s Department for Science, Innovation and Technology was not immediately available for comment when contacted by CNBC.



Source

Stablecoin issuer Circle applies for a national bank charter
Technology

Stablecoin issuer Circle applies for a national bank charter

Traders work on the floor at the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE), on the day of Circle Internet Group’s IPO, in New York City, U.S., June 5, 2025. Brendan McDermid | Reuters Stablecoin issuer Circle Internet Group has applied for a national trust bank charter, moving forward on its mission to bring stablecoins into the […]

Read More
Joby Aviation stock pops 14% after delivering first flying taxi to UAE
Technology

Joby Aviation stock pops 14% after delivering first flying taxi to UAE

An electric air taxi by Joby Aviation flies near the Downtown Manhattan Heliport in Manhattan, New York City, U.S., November 12, 2023.  Roselle Chen | Reuters Joby Aviation stock soared about 14% as the flying air taxi maker got closer to launching a service in the United Arab Emirates. The electric vertical takeoff and landing, […]

Read More
Robinhood gives out tokens of OpenAI and SpaceX in Europe. Stock hits record
Technology

Robinhood gives out tokens of OpenAI and SpaceX in Europe. Stock hits record

CANNES — Robinhood stock climbed 10% to an all-time high Monday after the company rolled out tokenized shares of OpenAI and SpaceX to users in Europe as part of a larger crypto rollout. It is the company’s first move to make private equity accessible via blockchain. The announcement, which came Monday during the company’s product showcase […]

Read More