The consultation aims to gather views on the government’s objectives for AI, including boosting trust and transparency between sectors, by ensuring AI developers provide right holders with greater clarity about how they use their material.

Other objectives include improving right holders’ control over whether or not their works are used to train AI models, and their ability to be paid for its use where they so wish.

The final objective covered in the consultation addresses making sure AI developers have access to high-quality material to train leading AI models in the UK and support innovation across the UK AI sector.

Additionally, the consultation addresses other emerging issues, including copyright protection for computer-generated works, and the issue of digital replicas.

The proposals include a mechanism for right holders to reserve their rights, enabling them to license and be paid for the use of their work in AI training.

Alongside this, the government has proposed an exception to support use at scale of a wide range of material by AI developers where rights have not been reserved.

The government said that this approach would balance right holders’ ability to seek remuneration while providing a clear legal basis for AI training with copyright material, so that developers can train leading models in the UK while respecting the rights of right holders.

The consultation will run for 10 weeks, beginning 17^th December 2024 and closing on 25^th February 2025. It is supported by the Intellectual Property Office, the Department for Science, Innovation and technology, and the Department for Culture, Media and Sport.

The consultation follows a letter sent earlier this year from Baroness Stowell, chair of the House of Lords Communications Committee, that said the previous government’s AI policies regarding copyright were “inadequate and deteriorating”.

In a statement about the new consultation, Stowell said: “The government is right to try and make progress on this issue and must do so in a way that aligns incentives, and empowers content creators and tech firms to strike mutually beneficial deals.

“If this consultation leads to an ‘opt-out’ model, it is vital publishers and other copyright holders have the necessary information to understand how and where their data is being used and are supported by enhanced enforcement mechanisms so they can enforce their copyright and block AI web crawlers should they choose to do so. It is not fair to expect rights holders alone to enforce their copyright in an often-mismatched legal battle against the bottomless pockets of the tech giants.”