U.K. Artists Demand Tighter Protections from AI Data Mining

Opinion Why AI Slop Is the Future of Art Aimee Walleston

The U.K. government’s latest consultation on copyright and artificial intelligence reveals a strong preference for tighter protections for artists and creatives from AI data mining and training.

More than 11,500 participants responded to a survey undertaken by the departments of Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT), Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS), and the Intellectual Property Office (IPO). Of those who used the government’s Citizen Space online survey tool to participate, 88 percent of respondents supported a licensing requirement for any AI usage.

Only three percent of this cohort, meanwhile, supported the government’s preferred pathway: the creation of a copyright exception for AI data mining, unless rights-holders—including visual artists and their estates, as well as creators from other industries—exercise their right to opt out. 

A ‘broad data mining exception’, which would not require tech companies to provide an opt-out, was supported by just 0.5 percent of respondents using the Citizen Space tool.

Those surveyed included creatives, academics, researchers, cultural heritage organisations, and lawyers, among others.

The findings show that respondents from the tech sector had ‘mixed views on transparency’, with many supporting ‘non-legislative approaches’ or ‘light-touch regulation’, and options for partial or total copyright exceptions for AI development.

‘Copyright laws must protect creative works,’ the consultation statement reads, ‘whilst also ensuring the U.K. reaps the transformational benefits of AI and keeps our place as one of the world’s top innovators and economies.’

In a statement, Artists’ Union England criticised the close-to-Christmas timing of the ‘long awaited’ results, feeling that the announcement ‘won’t get the coverage it should’. (The consultation period ran from 17 December 2024–25 February 2025.)

DSIT secretary Liz Kendall stressed to Parliament on Monday the importance of taking the time to ‘get this right’.

‘This is an issue that many countries around the world are grappling with and one to which there is no clear consensus on,’ Kendall said.

Nevertheless, the results show clear support, at least in the U.K., for artists’ rights over an AI-friendly approach.

Edward Whitley from Bridgeman Images, an image licensing agency that represents many artists and estates, called for the U.K. government to ‘take a strong stance’.

AI developers ‘must be instructed that creators’ rights have to be respected and copyright clearance and remuneration has to be sought in advance,’ Whitley said. —[O]

Main image: The Palace of Westminster in London, the meeting place of the Parliament of the United Kingdom (2008). Photo: Mike Gimelfarb, Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons.