On December 17, 2024, the UK government - jointly through the Intellectual Property Office, the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology, and the Department for Culture, Media and Sport - launched a public consultation titled “Copyright and Artificial Intelligence.” The consultation, which ran for ten weeks until February 25, 2025, sought to resolve a long-running standoff between the creative industries and AI developers over whether and how copyrighted works may be used to train AI models. The UK had previously floated, then abandoned, a broad mining exception in 2022, so this was a second attempt to find a workable settlement.
The government set out several options but signaled a preference for a model echoing the European Union: a text-and-data-mining exception that would let AI developers train on copyrighted works unless the rightsholder reserved their rights (an opt-out), paired with transparency obligations requiring developers to disclose what they used so creators could enforce their reservations. The consultation also raised related questions about copyright in computer-generated works and about digital replicas. The proposal provoked fierce opposition from artists, musicians, and publishers, who argued an opt-out unfairly shifts the burden onto creators and legitimizes mass use of their work; thousands of artists released a silent protest album, and high-profile figures campaigned against it.
The government published its response in 2026, stepping back from the opt-out as its preferred path amid the backlash and signaling no immediate reform.
Why business readers should care: the UK’s deliberation showed how politically charged the rules for AI training data have become. For companies, the unsettled outcome means continued legal uncertainty about training on UK-sourced content - and a reminder that proposed exceptions can collapse under public pressure.