McCartney warns 'AI could take over' as UK debates copyright laws

Paul McCartney has backed calls for laws to stop mass copyright theft by companies building generative artificial intelligence, warning AI "could just take over".

- Robert Booth

The former Beatle said it would be "a very sad thing indeed" if young composers and writers could not protect their intellectual property from the rise of algorithmic models that have so far learned by digesting mountains of copyrighted material.

He spoke out amid growing concern that the rise of AI is threatening income streams for music, news and book publishers. Next week, the UK parliament will debate amendments to the data bill that could allow creators to decide whether or not their copyrighted work can be used to train generative AI models.

The amendments, championed by Beeban Kidron of the House of Lords, would require operators of internet bots that copy content to train generative AI models to comply with copyright laws.

Some publishers, such as Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation and the Financial Times, have already struck licensing deals to allow OpenAI to train its large language models on their journalism. In contrast, the New York Times has sued OpenAI and Microsoft for copyright infringement.