Labour ministers 'cosied up' with Big Tech on the day they launched consultation on controversial AI copyright exemption
Ministers ‘cosied up’ to Big Tech the day the government launched a consultation on plans to give AI firms an exemption from copyright law.
Technology secretary Peter Kyle met representatives of Meta, owner of Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, to discuss ‘AI opportunities’ on December 17, according to official records.
Later, he spent time with Donald Trump’s AI policy advisor Sriram Krishnan, a venture capitalist who has previously held senior positions at Microsoft, Twitter, Yahoo! and Facebook.
It was the same day the government started seeking views on its proposal to allow Big Tech to ‘scrape’ creators’ content without payment when training their AI models.
The following day, Mr Kyle flew to San Francisco, California, to meet bosses from various tech giants including Open AI, Scale AI and World Labs.
Meanwhile, AI minister Feryal Clark met the Startup Coalition - a fervent pro-tech advocate - on December 17, despite promising a ‘balanced’ approach that would ‘protect the interests of our creative industries’.
Last night, culture committee chairman Caroline Dinenage MP said: ‘The government have massively drunk the Kool Aid on AI and are just doing everything they can to cosy up to big tech.
‘It’s only latterly that they've been dragged, kicking and screaming, to meet with our creative industries who are worth £135 billion a year to the British economy.
Technology secretary Peter Kyle held meetings with Big Tech on the day the government launched its AI consultation, and jetted to Silicon Valley the following day
Mr Kyle also met Sriram Krishnan (pictured), Donald Trump's AI policy advisor who previously held senior positions at Microsoft , Twitter , Yahoo! and Facebook
AI minister Feryal Clark met the Startup Coalition - a fervent pro-tech advocate - on the same day
‘Creators are very important to the UK economy and the government ignores them at its peril.
‘I have massive concerns about what's going to come out of the consultation. It has felt like a very one-sided argument so far.
‘If the whispers are to be believed, they're already looking at what they can give away to the US - everything from online safety to digital markets. These all seem to be open season when it comes to trying to swing a better deal with Mr Trump.’
Baroness Kidron, an advisor to the Institute for Ethics in AI at Oxford University, said the government appears to ‘represent the interests of Silicon Valley rather than the UK’.
‘The conflict of interest between government and their advisors is increasingly uncomfortable,’ she said. ‘In choosing to take advice only from people who represent Big Tech, they are betraying Britain’s much-loved creative industry that is such a fabulous wealth creator for the UK.
‘The last few months have been something of a learning curve. What I thought was being done out of lack of understanding turns out to be a deliberate strategy of transfer of data and wealth from UK to US.’
The Mail is campaigning to save Britain’s creators from the threat of AI.
A spokesman for the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology said: 'As they have done throughout, both the Technology Secretary and AI Minister continue to meet with a wide range of representatives from both the AI sector and creative industries. This is in addition to meetings held by the Culture Secretary and Minister for Creative Industries.
'Further details on these engagements will be available in due course as part of the department’s routine transparency data.'
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