Daily Star battle Big Tech to cease AI seize for information and artistic content material in copyright row

The Daily Star is part of a fight against the ‘threat’ of Big Tech using copyrighted content to train their generative AI tools for free – it is pushing for AI companies to pay up

The Daily Star is fighting back against Big Tech and Artificial Intelligence chatbots which are a direct “threat” to its future.With a call to action front page the news publisher urged the UK Government not to preserve copyright protections – and stop AI harvesting news and creative content for free.

The Daily Star’s new Editor-in-Chief Ben Rankin made an impassioned plea saying “support us in our big fight against big tech greed”.

As part of the ‘Make It Fair’ campaign, the Daily Star and parent company Reach PLC is pushing for the creative industries to be paid by Big Tech billionaires that use creative content to help train their generative AI models. That means anything from books, music, visual art and news articles are all being mined by AI companies to enhance their AI programmes without permission.

A number of publishers, celebs and artists say this is unfair. Mr Rankin added: “They want to train their AI tools with our stories – for free! We think that’s wrong and that the Government should back us to be paid. If they don’t (they’re currently trying to decide), your Daily Star faces and uncertain future and a world without us would be a much duller place, don’t you think?”

The row has emerged over proposed changes to Britain’s 300-year-old copyright laws and reports that the Government hopes to align itself with Donald Trump’s administration on the issue of AI.

The Sunday Times has also said that the UK’s new top dog in Washington, Lord Peter Mandelson, is planning to offer up the UK as the main hub for AI investment from the US.

In January, the Government launched a consultation – due to end on Tuesday – proposing that AI firms can use copyrighted works to train their AI software without requiring the permission of the owner, unless they decide to opt out.

Critics of the idea suggest it is not possible for a creative to notify potentially hundreds of companies of their decision to opt out.

The Star isn’t the only one to rail against the proposals. Top British creative treasures like Kate Bush, Stephen Fry, Dua Lipa and Sir Paul McCartney said in a letter to The Times that any such change to copyright laws would “represent a wholesale giveaway of rights and income from the UK’s creative sectors to Big Tech”.

But a spokesperson for Sir Keir Starmer said that the Government wants to “strike a balance between a system that protects rights holders and their interests, but also allows AI innovators to invest into the UK and ensure that they’ve got appropriate access to data that supports investment into the sector.”

Find out more about the Make It Fair campaign here.

They also said: “The point of the consultation is to engage and to receive views, and we’ll obviously update at the other end of that.”

Earlier in February, culture minister Sir Chris Bryant said the Government will respond to the consultation “as soon as we can” and legislation is expected to implement “whatever we choose to do in the end” as they seek a “win-win” arrangement.

The celeb-signed letter to The Times also backed amendments approved by peers in January. These amendments are part of the Data (Use and Access) Bill, which is otherwise not about the issue of AI.

The measures would explicitly subject AI companies to UK copyright law, regardless of where they are based, reveal the names and owners of web crawlers that currently operate anonymously and allow copyright owners to know when, where and how their work is used.

Crossbench peer Baroness Kidron is leading the campaign on that. She says the amendments will be reintroduced again in the Lords if they are removed in the Commons.

Lady Kidron said the Government’s stated preferred option of an “opt-out” system would simply “give away other people’s living and their VAT contribution to the Treasury and with it the jobs, joy and soft power of our creative industries that our country relies on globally”.

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