Allowing AI to exploit and undermine journalism in Wales would be catastrophic - the UK government must think again
Under changes to copyright laws being proposed by the UK Government, AI companies will be able to train their systems on text, images, music and any other online content without having to pay the creators of that content for gaining the ability to summarise, recreate or even directly replicate it.
That means that international AI corporations will be able to extract all the value from the work of everyone from artists and musicians to historians and scientists - as well as local journalists at our hard-working team at WalesOnline.
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The creative industry is worth around £126bn, and employs around 2.4m people, and is today coming together to make it clear that these changes are potentially ruinous for the entire sector.
For a local news industry already being squeezed by the BBC's digital expansion on one side and the market dominance of Meta and Google on the other, giving the AI industry free access to exploit our intellectual property would be catastrophic, stifling our ability to break major stories, carry out investigations that expose exploitation and injustice and give a voice to people in marginalised communities.
Good journalism makes a huge difference to life in Wales, it would be a travesty to undermine it. Our journalism has exposed exploitation in the door-to-door charity fundraising industry by sending a reporter undercover. It has shed a light on scandals and problems everywhere from the very top of the Welsh Government to institutions like S4C and political parties Plaid Cymru.
Journalists force people in positions of authority to answer the questions they'd rather shirk. And they help people who feel ignored tell their stories. They bring to life the issues that matter to the people of Wales cities, towns, villages and communities of the region. Wales would be a lesser place without good journalism.
We stand with the UK's outstanding creative industries to say it's time to fairly compensate the creators, and to call on the Government to protect one of the country's great natural resources.
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