In the latest ‘ping pong’ between both Houses, following an overwhelming vote for AI transparency in the House of Lords last week, MPs in the House of Commons rejected an amendment to the Data (and Users) Bill by creative industries champion Baroness Kidron, which would have ensured that Big Tech and generative AI would be held accountable for the data they scrape, regarding its origins.

Secretary of State Peter Kyle, MP, said: “Pitting one against the other is unnecessarily divisive and damages both.

But this has never been the case; the creative industries have always championed AI. As members of the Creative Rights and AI Coalition, ACID fully endorses, as have many others, “That protecting copyright and building a dynamic licensing market for the use of creative content in developing generative AI (GAI) isn’t just a question of fairness; it’s the only way that both sectors will flourish and grow”. We join many in a renewed call on the government and the tech sector to join us in building a future that values, protects, and promotes human creativity.

Citing that this Bill may be, “A Bill of Missed Opportunities”, Shadow Technology Secretary, Ben Spencer MP., included amongst other comments, “A missed opportunity to provide much-needed certainty to two of our key growth industries – the creative and AI sectors – over how they can interact to promote their mutual growth and flourishing.”

In an interview with Robert Winston in the Irish Tech Times (2016), Professor of Science and Society and Emeritus Professor of Fertility Studies at Imperial College London and Labour Peer Baron Winston of Hammersmith said, “Artificial intelligence, generally, is one of the scientific promises and one of the scientific threats. We have to work out how we can use it wisely, so it doesn’t damage our society. But at the moment, I think it’s too early to predict where we will be with artificial intelligence, but I think that the idea that we supplant some of the human nature with artificial intelligence is really very worrying.”

If AI is allowed to continue its path at exponential speed, it poses an existential threat to the global creative industries and will run out of data long before our government, currently moving like snails in molasses, brings parties together to create solutions. By acting as a catalyst for collaboration, not division, both sectors can survive and grow in a culture of respect, ethics, and compliance, and above all value in human discernment. At the moment, it would appear that our government is intent on siding with Silicon Valley.

What happens next? Following the House of Commons’ rejection of an amendment to the Data and Users Bill, the bill is sent back to the House of Lords. The House of Lords will then consider the rejected amendment and may either agree to it, make further amendments, or choose to drop it. This process of back and forth between the two houses, known as “ping-pong,” continues until they reach an agreement. If a deadlock is reached, the bill may fall, according to the Institute for Government.