‘An existential threat’: anger over UK government plans to allow AI firms to scrape content | Artificial intelligence (AI) | The Guardian

Ministers are facing a major backlash over plans that would allow artificial intelligence companies to scrape content from publishers and artists, amid claims that the government risks "giving in" to the tech giants.

The BBC is among the organisations opposing a plan that would allow tech companies to train artificial intelligence models using online content by default, unless publishers and other content creators specifically "opt out".

In what is becoming one of the first major AI policy rows, a series of meetings and roundtables is being planned to calm the concerns. Some in Whitehall fear publishers have not had a strong enough voice in the debate so far, but any announcement is now on hold until after this week's budget.

The government is desperate to attract investment from tech firms as it searches for economic growth, and ministers have already announced total investment in UK datacentres of more than £25bn since the election. However, Google warned last month that Britain risks being left behind unless it builds more datacentres and lets tech firms use copyrighted work in their AI models.