“It would basically kill the AI industry overnight”: Nick Clegg thinks asking artists for use permission is a bad thingNick Clegg, former deputy prime minister and ex-Meta head of global affairs, says a requirement to ask artists for express permission to use their work to train AI models would “basically kill the AI industry in this country overnight”.
Clegg’s comments come amid an ongoing storm in the music industry, which was sparked by UK government plans to allow AI companies to train their models using copyrighted content. A number of high-profile artists have spoken out in opposition to the plans, including Elton John, who recently branded the plans “criminal”.

READ MORE: Max Richter blasts proposals to allow AI companies to train models on copyrighted material

Speaking at a recent event to promote his new book, How to Save the Internet – which looks at “the threat to global connection in the age of AI and political conflict” – Clegg said while creatives should have the ability to opting their work out of AI training, it’s not feasible to ask each artist for their consent first.
“I think the creative community wants to go a step further,” he said [via The Times]. “Quite a lot of voices say, ‘You can only train on my content, [if you] first ask’. And I have to say that strikes me as somewhat implausible because these systems train on vast amounts of data.”
“I just don’t know how you go around, asking everyone first. I just don’t see how that would work,” he went on. “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.”
The use of copyrighted music in AI training has been the subject of fierce debate for some time. 
Speaking to MusicTech last year, producer Brian Wayne Transeau – better known as BT – said “the future of music is human”, adding that while he “strongly” believes in “consensual, ethically trained AI”, he said “there are very few companies respecting intellectual property rights in this space.”
“Some are flagrantly flaunting their first-to-market status from trading text-to-music models by scraping Spotify and YouTube,” he went on. “I find this an abhorrent misuse of this technology, one which I believe that, when used responsibly, will unlock infinite creative potential in the next generation of music creators.”
A recent proposed amendment to the Data (Use and Access) Bill in the UK – which aims to offer those in creative industries more insight into how their work is used by AI companies – sought to make tech companies disclose the copyrighted material used to train their models.
Per The Verge, while the amendment gained support from the likes of Paul McCartney, Dua Lipa, Andrew Lloyd Webber and hundreds of others, members of parliament on Thursday rejected it, with technology secretary Peter Kyle saying “Britain’s economy needs both [AI and creative] sectors to succeed and prosper”.
Learn more about AI via MusicTech.
The post “It would basically kill the AI industry overnight”: Nick Clegg thinks asking artists for use permission is a bad thing appeared first on MusicTech.