Labour has abandoned plans to allow AI companies to take copyrighted works without permission after a backlash from the creative industries.
Ministers initially proposed reforming copyright law to boost the AI industry but were faced with a campaign of opposition led by Sir Elton John and Sir Paul McCartney, who accused the government of legalising the “theft” of creative works.
Liz Kendall, the technology secretary, and Lisa Nandy, the culture secretary, will update parliament on the issue on Wednesday.
They are expected to ditch an “opt-out” policy which would have allowed AI companies to train software on copyrighted works unless the rights holder removed their consent.
Nandy told peers in January that “at the moment we do not have a workable opt-out proposal on the table”.