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AI is not theft: the UK just got it right
The open letter signed by Paul McCartney, Dua Lipa, Elton John, and other illustrious defenders of the status quo demanding that every AI company disclose a full list of copyrighted works used to train their models is as technically unfeasible as it is conceptually absurd. It’s the equivalent of asking every musician to catalog every single song they’ve ever listened to. As I’ve written before, the goal isn’t to “protect creativity” — it’s to prop up a business model built on the artificial scarcity of copies.
Thankfully, the UK House of Commons has seen sense. By 195 votes to 124, MPs rejected the so-called “transparency amendment” pushed by Baroness Kidron. Tech Secretary Peter Kyle said it plainly: pitting the creative industry against the AI industry is “unnecessarily divisive” and harmful to the UK’s economic growth. Rather than give in to nostalgic blackmail, the government will establish working groups to find viable solutions — not emotional band-aids.
The final blow came hours later when Nick Clegg — former deputy prime minister, now a Meta executive and tech evangelist —…
