LogInAccording to Nick Clegg, the AI industry wouldn't exist if developers were required to ask for permission to use one's works for AI training.
Although it's basically an open secret at this point that AI companies have to ignore copyright laws and basic human decency and scrape trillions of gigabytes of data just to function, it's still surprising to hear AI proponents say it out loud.
Nick Clegg, a United Kingdom politician and former Vice President of Global Affairs and Communications at Meta, recently did just that, stating that requiring AI developers to ask for permission to use one's works for AI training would "kill" the industry altogether.
Kenzo Tribouillard/Getty
Speaking at the Charleston Festival, Clegg addressed the question of whether artists should be able to withhold their work from AI training – a topic that has sparked heated debate in the British parliament in recent weeks.
As reported by The Times, he acknowledged that creatives' desire to prevent their work from being used without consent is understandable, calling it "a matter of natural justice." However, he quickly pivoted by saying that, in his opinion, "the creative community wants to go a step further" and force AI companies to ask for permission before using one's content for training, something Clegg sees as "somewhat implausible because these systems train on vast amounts of data."
He stressed that if the UK alone made it law for AI developers to respect copyright and seek creators' permission before using their work, it "would basically kill the AI industry in this country overnight," unless other countries did so as well.
"I just don’t know how you go around, asking everyone first. I just don't see how that would work," Clegg said. "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. So, I think people should have clear, easy-to-use ways of saying, no, I don't. I want out of this. But I think expecting the industry, technologically or otherwise, to preemptively ask before they even start training – I just don't see. I'm afraid that just collides with the physics of the technology itself."
That sentiment echoes OpenAI's recent proposal submitted to the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, where they openly admitted that without having unrestricted access to data, their generative models cannot exist.
In the write-up's section on copyright, OpenAI declared that "if the PRC's developers have unfettered access to data and American companies are left without fair use access, the race for AI is effectively over. America loses, as does the success of democratic AI." You can read the full proposal, full of outlandish demands, calls for federal regulations, fear-mongering, and faux-patriotism by clicking this link.
Don't forget to join our 80 Level Talent platform and our new Discord server, follow us on Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, Telegram, TikTok, and Threads, where we share breakdowns, the latest news, awesome artworks, and more.