The UK government is considering changing the law to allow AI companies to use creators' online content to train their models, unless the creators explicitly choose to opt out of the system. This move has sparked strong opposition from the music industry, with former Beatles member Paul McCartney publicly expressing concerns, warning that it could lead to a "Wild West" scenario where creative works lose their rightful copyright protection.
In an interview with the BBC, McCartney urged the government to reconsider this approach, emphasizing the potential threat it poses to emerging artists: "Young boys and girls are coming up, writing beautiful songs, but they don't own them." He believes that creators should benefit from their works, rather than allowing others to profit from them.
Although he collaborated with AI on the Beatles' final song "Now and Then," McCartney clearly stated: "I think AI is great; it can do many wonderful things. But it shouldn't take away from creative people, that makes no sense."
While the UK government has promised to provide creators with "real control" and transparency, critics argue that the proposed opt-out system places an unfair burden on artists, requiring them to track and oppose every AI company individually, which often favors data collectors more.
Tom Keel from the UK Music Association also stated, "There is no evidence that creatives can effectively 'opt out' of being included in AI training systems, so this apparent concession does not reassure those working in music."
Currently, YouTube's approach may provide a reference for this controversy, as they allow creators to choose which AI companies can use their content, potentially enabling systematic payments for training data. However, achieving this requires coordination across platforms and countries.
In fact, courts have already begun to intervene. Major US record companies are taking legal action against AI music generators, and Germany's Gema has sued Suno.ai and ChatGPT over issues related to lyrics usage.