Elton John has come out all guns blazing against the government’s proposals to change the copyright laws to allow AI firms to train their systems on authors' and songwriters’ work.
In an interview on the BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg programme yesterday, John said that the new proposals constituted a “criminal offence” against creators and described the government as “absolute losers”.
Elton said the government was on course to “rob young people of their legacy and their income”, adding: “It’s a criminal offence, I think. The government are just being absolute losers, and I’m very angry about it.”
The 78 year old singer also suggested that the Prime Minister, Sir Kier Starmer needed to “wise up” and branded the Technology Secretary Peter Kyle as a “bit of a moron”. Kyle was last week accused to being too close to big tech after it was revealed there had been a sharp rise in his meetings with companies such as Meta, Google, Amazon and Apple since last July.
Elton also threatened legal action against the government, saying that "we'll fight it all the way".
Sitting alongside him in the interview was the playwright James Graham would said that the current government "do understand the value of creativity... but what's frustrating is either the complacency or the willingness to let Silicon Valley tech bros get it all their own way".
The proposals are at a critical stage. An amendment last week in the House Of Lords which would have required AI companies to disclose their use of copyright-protected work, thus providing copyright holders an opportunity to grant permission or not, was passed by a majority of 147. Unfortunately, two days later, the House of Commons voted to reject this amendment. Elton was not impressed.
“It’s criminal, in that I feel incredibly betrayed,” he said. “The House of Lords did a vote, and it was more than two to one in our favour, the government just looked at it as if to say: ‘Hmmm, well, the old people like me can afford it.”
A spokesperson for the government has said that it wants both the UK's creative industries and AI companies to "flourish, which is why we're consulting on a package of measures that we hope will work for both sectors". At present, a compromise that would endear them to all parties seems a very distant prospect indeed.
