Labour's AI plans are ‘an act of cultural suicide'
Jonny Geller, chief executive of the Curtis Brown agency, said that the publication of an AI-generated bestseller was inevitable and would spell catastrophe for the creative industries.
Under new proposals, big tech companies would be allowed to use copyrighted material to train AI software unless the rights holder explicitly opted out.
Mr Geller, whose authors include Marian Keyes, Anthony Horowitz and William Boyd, and who manages the estate of John le Carré, said the publishing industry must fight the plans.
Writing in The Bookseller, he said: 'The publishing and agency world may be sleepwalking into its own dangerous and dark period. Not so much a democratic threat as a cultural act of suicide.
'Under the banner of 'how can you stop progress?', we are being invited to reward the companies who stole our authors' work by doing deals with those very same companies.'
Mr Geller said that 'no organisation should have the right to take image, creative talent or copyright without permission and that permission should not be obscured by an 'opt-out' only option'.
He also argued that AI-generated fiction and non-fiction should be labelled as such, and AI content must provide attribution and pay for its sources.
'Of course, there will be a number one, bestselling novel that is purely AI-generated and we will talk about it and bewail (again) the death of the novel,' he said.
'But it will herald a period of disruption so catastrophic for the creative industry that we will forget this simple, inalienable truth: that all creativity comes from humans who have either lived or imagined extraordinary worlds, not a programme that has recycled older ideas and juggled words around,' Geller said.
His intervention on behalf of the publishing industry follows last month's release of a silent album by more than 1,000 musicians, including Kate Bush, Damon Albarn and Hans Zimmer, in protest at the Government's planned changes.
Sir Paul McCartney has also sent a message to the Government, saying: 'You're supposed to protect us. That's your job. So if you're putting through a Bill, make sure you protect the creative thinkers, the creative artist, or you're not going to have them.'
The Make it Fair campaign, backed by a coalition of creatives, artists and businesses including The Telegraph, also opposes the proposals.
Dame Caroline Dinenage, chairman of the culture, media and sport select committee, likened the opt-out rule to 'burglars being allowed into your house unless there's a big sign on your front door expressly telling them that thievery isn't allowed'.
According to the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology, the UK's current regime for copyright and AI 'is holding back the creative industries, media and AI sector from realising their full potential – and that cannot continue'.
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