MPs voice unease over AI's impact on UK creative industry

There has been concern expressed by MPs over the UK's lack of comprehensive regulations to govern interactions between artificial intelligence (AI) platforms and the creative industry. According to them, the inadequacy benefits major tech companies. Last week, a report was published by the House of Commons culture, media and sport committee with findings on the ramifications of current payment and working conditions for creative professionals.

The report indicated that many British artists have continued to experience a decrease in their royalties. This is in part due to the uptake of digital distribution models which yield lesser payouts for creators when compared to traditional physical distribution systems. The chair of the committee, Dame Caroline Dinenage, voiced that talented actors, writers, singers and composers are missing out on the global success of the UK's creative industries. This, she attributed to multiple factors including the prevalence of AI and swift changes in content consumption habits.

Dame Caroline suggested that in order to navigate this challenging landscape, "The government needs to play catch-up by plugging the gaps in outdated copyright and intellectual property regulations." Professionals within the music, literary, and television sectors are among those with significant apprehensions relating to AI platforms. These platforms have the ability to plagiarise and duplicate their work without providing proper compensation, thus raising doubts over the future of their industries.

Sjuul van der Leeuw, CEO of Deployteq, a subsidiary of Inspired Thinking Group, acknowledged the concerns but advocated for embracing AI: "AI is already playing a central role within the creative industries in areas such as marketing. It's being deployed to support content creation for campaigns as well as analysing first-party data to better tailor engagement. It's important to protect creatives' IP, but big tech companies aren't going to slow down AI development. The benefits that AI can offer the creative sector are limitless, and the industry is primed to boom as soon as the industry collectively embraces these benefits."

Deputy CEO of Inspired Thinking Group, John Kirk, echoed the need for creative industries to adapt. "The development of AI isn't slowing down, and its rapid evolution is blurring the lines between efficiency, creativity and intellectual property. There needs to be a greater focus on ensuring creatives are protected, but anyone not on the AI train is going to be left behind."

Kirk underlined the importance of collaboration between government, regulators and industry to establish a well-managed governance model in order to support content operations and reduce risk. He suggested that AI should be perceived as a tool for creatives to increase the quality and quantity of their work to meet the growing content demand. Platforms like Storyteq utilise AI to streamline content creation through brand-compliant localisation across all content. Kirk advocated for the combination of human creativity and AI efficiency as a way to transform the creative industries for the better.