Labour ministers 'cosied up' with Big Tech on the day they launched consultation on controversial AI copyright exemption

Ministers ‘cosied up’ to Big Tech the time the authorities launched a consultation connected plans to springiness AI firms an exemption from copyright law.

Technology caput Peter Kyle met representatives of Meta, proprietor of Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, to sermon ‘AI opportunities’ connected December 17, according to authoritative records.

Later, helium spent clip with Donald Trump’s AI argumentation advisor Sriram Krishnan, a task capitalist who has antecedently held elder positions astatine Microsoft, Twitter, Yahoo! and Facebook.

It was the aforesaid time the authorities started seeking views connected its connection to let Big Tech to ‘scrape’ creators’ contented without outgo erstwhile grooming their AI models.

The pursuing day, Mr Kyle flew to San Francisco, California, to conscionable bosses from assorted tech giants including Open AI, Scale AI and World Labs.

Meanwhile, AI curate Feryal Clark met the Startup Coalition - a fervent pro-tech advocator - connected December 17, contempt promising a ‘balanced’ attack that would ‘protect the interests of our originative industries’.

Last night, civilization committee president Caroline Dinenage MP said: ‘The authorities person massively drunk the Kool Aid connected AI and are conscionable doing everything they tin to cosy up to large tech.

‘It’s lone latterly that they've been dragged, kicking and screaming, to conscionable with our originative industries who are worthy £135 cardinal a twelvemonth to the British economy.

‘Creators are precise important to the UK system and the authorities ignores them astatine its peril.

‘I person monolithic concerns astir what's going to travel retired of the consultation. It has felt similar a precise one-sided statement truthful far.

‘If the whispers are to beryllium believed, they're already looking astatine what they tin springiness distant to the US - everything from online information to integer markets. These each look to beryllium unfastened play erstwhile it comes to trying to plaything a amended woody with Mr Trump.’

Baroness Kidron, an advisor to the Institute for Ethics successful AI astatine Oxford University, said the authorities appears to ‘represent the interests of Silicon Valley alternatively than the UK’.

‘The struggle of involvement betwixt authorities and their advisors is progressively uncomfortable,’ she said. ‘In choosing to instrumentality proposal lone from radical who correspond Big Tech, they are betraying Britain’s much-loved originative manufacture that is specified a fabulous wealthiness creator for the UK.

‘The past fewer months person been thing of a learning curve. What I thought was being done retired of deficiency of knowing turns retired to beryllium a deliberate strategy of transportation of information and wealthiness from UK to US.’

The Mail is campaigning to prevention Britain’s creators from the menace of AI.

A spokesperson for the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology said: 'As they person done throughout, some the Technology Secretary and AI Minister proceed to conscionable with a wide scope of representatives from some the AI assemblage and originative industries. This is successful summation to meetings held by the Culture Secretary and Minister for Creative Industries.

'Further details connected these engagements volition beryllium disposable successful owed people arsenic portion of the department’s regular transparency data.'