AI Action Plan: ‘Govt proposals sideline creative sector’

The government has today (13 Jan) announced its AI Opportunities Action Plan. Dr Dominic Lees, artificial intelligence and synthetic media expert from the University of Reading’s School of Film, Theatre and Television, comments on the impact the plans could have on the creative sector. 

Dr Dominic Lees said: “The creative economy is the UK sector that is growing faster than other industries, represents nearly 6% of our GDP, and is hugely impacted by AI, yet the government's 'AI Opportunities Action Plan' appears to sideline it.  

“The commitment to investing in AI 'hardware' is great, but there are 'software' issues to resolve. How will government AI policy protect Intellectual Property, the creative output that powers future growth and income?  AI developers threaten to break creators' copyright and IP through internet 'scraping', which could lead to a contraction of the creative sector, not the growth that the government wants.  

“The AI Action Plan fails to address our thousands of creative SMEs and self-employed individuals, mentioning just the big companies. Small businesses are where innovation and growth come from, especially in the creative sector - government AI policy should aim to support them.”

Find out more about Dr Dominic Lees:   Parliamentary committee role return for AI and film expert