Latest news with #CharlestonFestival
Yahoo
27-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Legendary Facebook Exec Scoffs, Says AI Could Never Be Profitable If Tech Companies Had to Ask for Artists' Consent to Ingest Their Work
Fresh on the heels from his exit from Meta, former Facebook executive Nick Clegg is defending artificial intelligence against copyright holders who want to hold the industry accountable. As the Times of London reports, Clegg insisted during an arts festival last weekend that it's "implausible" to ask tech companies to ask for consent from creators before using their work to train their AI models. During a speech at the Charleston Festival in East Sussex — which was, ironically enough, meant to promote his new book titled "How To Save The Internet" — Meta's former global affairs vice president initially said that it was "not unreasonable" that artists may want to "opt out of having their creativity, their products, what they've worked on indefinitely modeled." But he then went on to suggest that those same artists are getting greedy. "I think the creative community wants to go a step further," Clegg then charged. "Quite a lot of voices say 'you can only train on my content, [if you] first ask.' And I have to say that strikes me as somewhat implausible because these systems train on vast amounts of data." "I just don't know how you go around, asking everyone first," Clegg said during a speech to promote his new book, ironically titled "How to Save The Internet," that took place at this year's Charleston Festival in East Sussex, England. "I just don't see how that would work." The former deputy prime minister then added that if AI companies were required only in Britain to gain permission to use copyright holders' works, "you would basically kill the AI industry in this country overnight." Clegg's comments came amid a fiery debate in England about AI and copyright, spurred on by a recent Parliament vote on an amendment to the UK government's data bill, which would have required companies to tell copyright holders when their work was used had it not been struck down in the House of Commons last week. His stance also put him in opposition to Paul McCartney, Elton John, Dua Lipa, and hundreds of other artists who called on the British government to "protect copyright in the age of AI," as Sir Elton put it in an Instagram post. Unfortunately, it seems that Parliament's lower house agreed with Clegg's sentiments and not the artists' — but history will show who was on which side of the AI wars. More on AI and copyright: Meta Says It's Okay to Feed Copyrighted Books Into Its AI Model Because They Have No "Economic Value"
Yahoo
27-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
A former top Meta exec says AI is doomed if artists want tech firms to ask for permission to train models on their work
Clegg was Meta's president of global affairs. He left the company in January. Clegg said it would be tough for companies to ask artists before training models on their work. He said this would "basically kill the AI industry" in the UK. Former Meta executive Nick Clegg says the UK's AI industry will be killed if tech companies must ask artists for permission to use their work when training models. Clegg was promoting his upcoming book "How to Save the Internet" at the Charleston Festival on Thursday when he was asked about artists' demands for tighter AI copyright laws. Clegg said it would be reasonable to let artists "opt out of having their creativity, their products, what they've worked on indefinitely modeled." However, he said it would be "somewhat implausible" if they expect companies to get permission before training models. Clegg said this is because "these systems train on vast amounts of data." "I just don't know how you go around, asking everyone first. I just don't see how that would work. And by the way, if you did it in Britain and no one else did it, you would basically kill the AI industry in this country overnight," Clegg continued. Clegg was the UK's deputy prime minister from 2010 to 2015. He joined Meta in 2018 as its vice president for global affairs and communications and was promoted to president of global affairs in 2022. He announced his departure from Meta in January. Clegg and representatives for Meta did not respond to requests for comment from Business Insider. In October, the UK government introduced the Data (Use and Access) Bill. The bill will allow companies to train AI on creative works such as books and music, unless the copyright holder opts out. Earlier this month, the House of Lords voted to amend the bill to require tech companies to disclose and seek consent before using copyrighted material to train their models. The House of Commons rejected the change. Singer Elton John said in an interview with the BBC on May 18 that he was "very angry" with the bill, as it would allow tech companies to engage in "theft, thievery on a high scale." He said he was prepared to take the government to court and "fight it all the way." "It's criminal, in that I feel incredibly betrayed," John said. Read the original article on Business Insider
Business Insider
27-05-2025
- Business
- Business Insider
A former top Meta exec says AI is doomed if artists want tech firms to ask for permission to train models on their work
Former Meta executive Nick Clegg says the UK's AI industry will be killed if tech companies must ask artists for permission to use their work when training models. Clegg was promoting his upcoming book "How to Save the Internet" at the Charleston Festival on Thursday when he was asked about artists' demands for tighter AI copyright laws. Clegg said it would be reasonable to let artists "opt out of having their creativity, their products, what they've worked on indefinitely modeled." However, he said it would be "somewhat implausible" if they expect companies to get permission before training models. Clegg said this is because "these systems train on vast amounts of data." "I just don't know how you go around, asking everyone first. I just don't see how that would work. And by the way, if you did it in Britain and no one else did it, you would basically kill the AI industry in this country overnight," Clegg continued. Clegg was the UK's deputy prime minister from 2010 to 2015. He joined Meta in 2018 as its vice president for global affairs and communications and was promoted to president of global affairs in 2022. He announced his departure from Meta in January. Clegg and representatives for Meta did not respond to requests for comment from Business Insider. In October, the UK government introduced the Data (Use and Access) Bill. The bill will allow companies to train AI on creative works such as books and music, unless the copyright holder opts out. Earlier this month, the House of Lords voted to amend the bill to require tech companies to disclose and seek consent before using copyrighted material to train their models. The House of Commons rejected the change. Singer Elton John said in an interview with the BBC on May 18 that he was " very angry" with the bill, as it would allow tech companies to engage in "theft, thievery on a high scale." He said he was prepared to take the government to court and "fight it all the way." "It's criminal, in that I feel incredibly betrayed," John said.
The Guardian
22-05-2025
- Politics
- The Guardian
Court ruling on legal definition of a woman ‘misinterpreted', Lady Hale says
The supreme court's ruling that the legal definition of a woman is based on biological sex 'has been misinterpreted', Lady Hale has said. Speaking at the Charleston literary festival in east Sussex, the first female president of the supreme court said the last thing she wants now that she has retired 'is to undermine the court and its authority by being critical of its decisions'. 'But I can be much more critical of the way it's been received. Because there's nothing in that judgment that says that you can't have gender neutral loos, as we have here in this festival,' she said, applauding the fact that Charleston's organisers went ahead with that decision 'despite the fact that there are people saying that you can't do that'. The judgment 'says nothing about that', she added. 'It's for other people to work out the other parts of the Equality Act which permit but do not require services to be provided differently for people according to sex.' The 80-year-old, who is a member of the House of Lords, also questioned what was meant by 'biological sex'. 'I was with some doctors last week who said there is no such thing as biological sex,' she said. 'There are plenty of things to quarrel with,' about the judgment, but Hale said her main concern was the 'very binary reaction that there has been to it'. The 'proper answer to all of this', she believes, is 'somewhere in the middle. So that's what I very much hope we will come out with when people have calmed down and start being sensible about things.' 'And it's the duty of society to foster that conversation now,' interjected Hale's fellow panellist, her daughter Julia Hoggett, the CEO of the London Stock Exchange. 'Yes, it's on all of us to foster it,' Hale agreed. Hoggett, the first out gay person to be employed in her role, has previously spoken about the importance of LGBT+ representation in the workplace. When asked by an audience member whether trans women should count towards gender quotas on company boards, she said: 'The idea that the trigger for all of this case was whether trans women should represent women in the representation of women on boards, I find heartbreaking.' Sign up to First Edition Our morning email breaks down the key stories of the day, telling you what's happening and why it matters after newsletter promotion She added that she would 'love' to have 'a talented trans woman sitting on a board of mine'. Hale became the subject of public discussion in 2019 when she delivered the supreme court's decision that Boris Johnson's advice to the queen that parliament should be prorogued for five weeks at the height of the Brexit crisis was unlawful. Much was made of the fact that she was wearing a brooch in the shape of a spider, with some speculating that the fashion choice was in reference to a song by The Who called Boris the Spider, who comes to a sticky end. 'The spider brooch was a mistake,' she told the Charleston audience, had she known the attention it would attract, she 'would have worn a frog'. She hadn't heard Boris the Spider until a friend sent her a YouTube video the day after the judgment – she found it to be 'not a very tuneful song' – but if she had known about its existence she would not have worn the brooch, 'because that was not the object of the exercise'. Hale continued: 'The object of the exercise was to uphold constitutional principle and the rule of law, and to say to the government there are things you cannot do. It's a simple message. There are a few things, not very many, but there are a few things you cannot do, and it's our job to tell you that.'
The Guardian
22-05-2025
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
‘It went black': Maggi Hambling describes life as artist after finger amputation
Maggi Hambling's morning routine involves making one drawing with her non-dominant left hand as soon as she gets up – a practice that has come in particularly useful lately, after having her little finger on her right hand amputated. 'On November the 17th, I fell down the stairs, and I had a glass in my hand. And it's cut through the hand and cut through the little finger,' she told the audience at Charleston festival in East Sussex, holding up her four-fingered hand. After the accident happened, she said she 'just sat at the bottom of the stairs with blood everywhere, because I thought Ipswich hospital would be full of drunks and everything on a Saturday night'. She waited until the following morning to go to hospital and, after an initial operation, she and the doctors decided to 'wait to see how it does'. 'But it just went black and began to stink,' the artist said. 'So I had to have it off.' Ever committed to her art – she gets up at 'about five in the summer and six in the winter' and works every day – Hambling was back in the studio as soon as she got back from hospital. She started drawing her right hand, which was in a 'great big bandage', with her left, 'and it felt fine'. Her therapist told her that hand injuries were 'most difficult for musicians and artists because a lot of their brains are in their hands', but that was 'news to me', Hambling said. 'Two of the funniest things' about the injury, she said, were when her plumber came into her studio in Suffolk, 'saw I was working with my left hand, and said: 'Is it going to be half-price then?' 'And then I sent a photograph [of her hand] on my telephone to my friend Carol and she immediately texted back and said: 'You'll have to go to Prince Harry's Invictus Games',' Hambling said. 'And that's the end of that.' The artist was speaking at the festival, held in the grounds of the former home of the Bloomsbury Group artists Vanessa Bell and Duncan Grant, alongside the artist Sarah Lucas. The pair have just announced a winter show at Sadie Coles HQ, for which they will each select works by the other. The art scene is 'a stinking, bitchy world', Hambling said, with Lucas adding that a lot of artists want to be in the 'success club', 'get rich' and 'get a yacht'. 'Like Tracey Emin,' Hambling joked.
