Britain’s two leading music icons, Elton John and Paul McCartney, on Sunday urged the UK government to protect creative artists from AI, as ministers consult on changing copyright laws.
Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s government is considering overhauling the law to allow AI developers to use content from online creators to help develop their models, as long as rights holders opt out.
The mooted changes could see technology companies allowed to use content that is available online without respecting copyright if they are using it for text or data mining.
But critics, including pop music legends John and McCartney, questioned how artists would opt out of generic programs from several different AI firms or monitor what happened to their work.
“The wheels are in motion to allow AI companies to ride roughshod over traditional copyright laws that protect artists’ livelihoods,” John Lewis told the Sunday Times.
“This will allow global big tech companies to get free and easy access to artists’ work to train their artificial intelligence and create competitive music.”
The 77-year-old, behind hits including “Rocket Man” and “Tiny Dancer”, warned it would dilute and threaten “the earnings of young artists” and that “the musician community completely rejects it”.
The government has said it will use its consultation, which is running until February 25, to explore key points of debate, including how creators can license and be remunerated for the use of their content.
‘Loss of creativity’
Starmer has previously said that the government needed to “get the balance right” with copyright and AI, while saying the technology represented “a huge opportunity”.
Asked about the plans in a BBC interview on Sunday, Finance Minister Rachel Reeves insisted that “we want to support artists”.
McCartney, 82 – one of the two surviving members of the Beatles – feared the plans could reduce incentives for writers and artists to create new material and result in a “loss of creativity”.
In a rare interview, he told the BBC that any new laws regarding copyright must “protect creative thinkers, creative artists”, warning “you’re not going to have them” without it.
“You young people, girls, are coming in, and they write a beautiful song, and they don’t own it, and they don’t have anything to do with it. And anyone who wants can just rip it off,” He said.
“The truth is the money is going somewhere…somebody is getting paid, so why shouldn’t it be the guy who sat down and wrote ‘Yesterday’?”
In 2023, McCartney and Beatles drummer Ringo Starr used AI to extract John Lennon’s vocals from an unfinished decades-old song and create a new track called “Now and Then”.
“I think AI is great, and it can do a lot of great things,” McCartney told the BBC in a rare interview, “It has its uses.
“But it shouldn’t be ripping off creative people. There’s no point in it.”
(This story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
