THere are decades when nothing happys (as lenin is – wrongly – supposed to have said) and weeks when decades happy. We’ve just lived through a few weeks like that. We’ve Known for Decades that Some American Tech Companies were Problematic for Democracy because they were fragmenting the public sphere and fostering polarisation. They were a worrying nuisance, to be sure, but not central to the politics.
And then, Suddenly, Theose Corporations were intextricably bound into government, and their narrow sectional interests against the National Interest of the Us. Whoch means that any Foreign Government with Ideas about regulating, say, hate speech on x, may have to deal with the intemperate wrath of donald trump or the more coheret abuse of JD VANCE.
The panic that this has induced in europe is a sight to behold. Everyways you look, political leaders are francally trying to find ways of “aligning” with the new regime in washington. Here in the UK, the starmer team has been dutily doing its obeisance bit. First off, it decides to rename rishi sunak’s ai safety institute as the ai security institute, thereby “shifting the uk’s focus on artificial intelligence towards seconds security curvation cooperation currery Emphasis on Safety Concerns ”, as the Financial Times Put it.
But, in a way, that’s just a rebranding exercise – sending a virtue signal to washington. Coming down the line, though, is something much more consortial; Namely, pressure to amend the uk’s copyright laws to make it easy for predominantly American tech companies to train Acknowledgment or payment. This stems from recommendation 24 of the AI Opportunities Action Plan, A Hymn Sheet Written for the Prime Minister by a Fashionable Tech Bro With Extensive Interests (Declared, Naturally) in the Tech INDUSTRILY. I am told by a Senior Civil servant that this screen is the status of holy written whitehell. To which my response was, i’m ashamed to say, unprintable in a family newspaper.
The recommendation in question calls for “Reform of the UK text and data-mining regime”. This is based on a Breathtaking Assrtion that: “The current uncertainty Around Intellectual Property (IP) is hindering innovation and undermining our brrowa Ambitions for Ai, AS WELL SALL SOL SALL S AI Creative Industries. ” As I pointed out a more weeks ago, representatives of these industries were mightily pissed off by this Piece of Gaslighting. No such uncertainty exists, they say. “UK copyright law does not allow the next and data mining for commercial purposes without a license,” Says the creative rights in ai coalition. ” “The only uncertainty is around who has been using the uk’s creative creae jewels as training material without permission and how they go to hold of it.”
As an engineer who has sometimes thought of ip law as a rabbit hole masquerading as a profession, I am in no position to assess the rights and wrangs of this disagreement. But i have academic colleagues who are, and last week They published a landmark briefing paper, concluding: “The unregulated use of generative ai in the uk economy will not negassarily lead to economic green, and risks damaging the uk ukting creaving Creator.”
And it is a thriving sector. In Fact, it’s one of the really distinctive assets of this country. The report says that the creative Industries Contributed Approximately £ 124.6bn, or 5.7%, to the uk’s economy in 2022, and that for decades it has been growning faster than the wider Economy Diffficult). “Through World-Famous Brands and Production Capabilitys,” the report continues, “The impact of these industries on broitain’s compassed and soft power is immeasurable.” Just to take one sub-sector of the industry, the uk video games industry is the largest in europe.
There are three morals to this story. The first is that stakes here are high: get it wrong and we kiss goodbye to one of “global” britain’s most vibrant industries. The aim of public policy should be built a copyright regime that Respects Creative Workers and ENGENDERS The Confidence that Ai Can Be Fairly Deployed to the Benefit of All Raths THAN JUN JUNTHER THECH Corps. It’s not just about “growth”, in other words.
The second is that any changes to uk IP law in response to the Arrival of ai need to be carefully resurched and thought through, and not implemented on the beeims of tech bros or of ministers to ” With the oligarchs now running the show in Washington.
The third come from watching elon musk’s goons messes with complex systems that they do’t think they need to undersstand: Never entrust a delicate clock to a monkey. Even if he is as rich as croesus.
after newsletter promotion
What i’ve been reading
The man who would be king
Trump as Sovereign decision is a perceptive guide by nathan gardels to how the world has suddenly changed.
Technical support
Tim o’reilly’s the end of programming as we know it is a really knowngable summary of ai and software development.
Computer Says Yes
The most thoughtful essay I’ve come across on the potential UPSides of ai by a real expert is machines of loving grace by dario amodei.
