Non-musician on AI: “Implausible” for artists to consent
Image credit: Ugur Akdemir
Former Meta executive and UK Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg says that artists’ consent shouldn’t be required to train AI on music.
As artificial intelligence continues to develop, the concerns of the creative industry compound. Governments have been slow to act to the quickly developing industry and now a non-musician is speaking against artist protection.
The dissenter is Nick Clegg, once leader of the Liberal Democrat party in the UK and Deputy Prime Minister in a coalition with David Cameron. Renowned amongst students for reversing his promises to reduce tuition fees, Clegg has since served time as an executive at Facebook’s parent company Meta.
The UKs creative sector has urged the government to take action against AI models that use music without permission to train their AI to reproduce it. However, Clegg says that requiring artists consent to use their music for AI would “basically kill the AI industry”.
The UK Government proposed changes to copyright law earlier this year to help make the UK a global leader in AI. The changes would require rights holders to expressly opt out to express a lack of consent for their content to be used in AI training.
The proposal has been campaigned against by some of the UK’s greatest artists like Sir Elton John and Sir Paul McCartney. The latter told the BBC that the government’s proposed opt-out mode would cause a “loss of creativity”.
McCartney went on to say: “You get young guys, girls, coming up, and they write a beautiful song, and they don’t own it, and they don’t have anything to do with it – and anyone who wants can just rip it off.”
An alternative option to the opt-out system is a proposed opt-in model, where artists can give their permission to be used in training AI. The companies would not be able to legally use any music that didn’t opt-in to train their AI models, and could face legal repurcussions for doing so.
However, Nick Clegg says that an opt-in system is “implausible”. Clegg, who is not a musician, says that he understands the motivation for artists, but says: “I just don’t know how you go around asking everyone first.
“I just don’t see how that would work. And by the way, if you did it in Britain and no one else did it, you would basically kill the AI industry in this country overnight. So, I think people should have clear, easy to use ways of saying, ‘no, I don’t [consent]. I want to be out of this.”
Clegg’s comments mark one of the few publicly dissenting voices against opposition to the government’s plans. The House of Lords has pushed back against the government’s plans for AI and the bill will return to the House of Commons.
Crossbench peer Lady Kidron said: “I want to reject the notion that those of us who are against the government plans are against technology. Creators do not deny the creative and economic value of AI, but we do deny the assertion that we should have to build AI for free with our work, and then rent it back from those who stole it.”
MPs voted 195 to 124 for the AI bill earlier in the year. With the huge pushback against it in recent months, including major voices in the creative industry and the House of Lords, the vote may – and hopefully will – look different next time.