Dr Allison Gardner

I welcome the opportunity to speak in support of the Bill and to address some of the amendment proposed, particularly Government new clauses 16 and 17. New clause 17 is entitled “Report on the use of copyright works in the development of AI systems”. I am pleased to note, in subsection (3)(b), that the report will “the effect of copyright on access to, and use of, data by developers of AI systems (for example, on text and data mining)”. I also note that “developers” are specifically broken down into “individuals, micro businesses, small businesses or medium-sized businesses”. It is right to provide for that level of granularity. Similarly, I note that the report will “consider, and make proposals in relation to… the disclosure of information by developers of AI systems about” their use of copyright data to develop AI systems and “how they access” that copyrighted data, “for example, by means of web crawlers”. I am pleased to see discussions of licensing included in the report, and an exploration, again in granular detail, of the impact of a licensing system on all levels of developers. However, I would have liked to see an equal level of granularity for copyright owners to understand the effects of proposals outlined in subsection (3). Subsection (4) states that “In preparing the report, the Secretary of State must consider the likely effect of proposals, in the United Kingdom, on… copyright owners” as well as developers and users of AI systems. Although I note that new subsection (4) refers to individuals, microbusinesses and so on, I feel that there is a little vagueness as to whether this level of granularity is afforded to copyright owners as well.