Opting out

Happy Wednesday, another day and another big gov AI announcement is incoming.

Happening Today 🗓️

In Parliament: A written ministerial statement will drop this morning updating on AI and Copyright. (More below). MPs will quiz tech ministers at 11:30am at DSIT questions.

London-bound: UK Tech week rolls into Westminster with roundtables and panels. Full agenda here.

Evening plans: The Lords have a chance this evening to out vote the government on regulating AI chatbots. Perennial thorn in ministers' sides, Beeban Kidron, has a host of amendments to the Crime and Policing Bill which would make it a criminal offence to build a chatbot which produces "illegal content" as defined under the Online Safety Act.

News In Brief 🩳

Get applying: AI startups can apply from today for access to some of the most powerful computing capacity in the country through the government’s AI Research Resource (AIRR). Around 10 per cent of AIRR’s capacity - powered by the Isambard‑AI and DAWN supercomputers - is being opened up to startups through the Sovereign AI Unit.

Summer planning: Rachel Reeves has announced an AI Adoption Summit this June during London Tech Week as well as the formation of an AI Economics Institute. (More below).

You're doing it all wrong: London-based UnlikelyAI has a survey out this morning of 1,000 UK execs claiming that employees are becoming less efficient because of AI. It reckons staff are spending so long verifying or redoing AI outputs that it is leading to "AI burnout".

Banned: The advertising regulator has banned an advert for a video editing tool that suggested users could digitally remove a woman's clothing, the BBC reports.

Opting out

The government will try to reset the AI-Copyright debate this morning when they update Parliament on next steps. There have been contradictory briefings about the update but ultimately their previously preferred "opt out" option is dead for now.

Confusion: I reported on Friday that there wasn't agreement within government on what to do next and that appears to have resulted in conflicted briefings. Some insiders were told that the government's previously preferred option of copyright holders having to actively request that their works be excluded from AI training datasets - "opt out" - will be gone for good, while others have been told the update will only confirm that "opt out" is no longer the preferred option.

Dead anyway: The latest I hear is that the latter, i.e. ruling "nothing in, nothing out" is still the case, but regardless it is hard to see any way forward for "opt out" whether it is ruled out completely or not. Culture secretary Lisa Nandy said as much in January when she confirmed they had no "workable" solutions for it.

Watching nervously: Rights holders will also be looking out for any hint of potential future changes to the Text and Data Mining exceptions. Without "opt out", changes would be limited, but are still possible, and very unpopular with creatives.

Chop chop: MPs will have about five minutes at the end of DSIT questions at 11:30am today to ask about the update, although the opposition front bench will surely ask too and there could be an "urgent question" in Parliament on it later. The actual update will be in a written ministerial statement this morning. (Do they not think of morning newsletter writers?)

Get some fresh takes: Join our online Q&A tomorrow at 10am, sponsored by RELX, to hear from an expert panel on today's update. We'll be joined by Doniya Soni-Clark, Associate Director of External Affairs at techUK, Richard Mollet, Head of European Government Affairs at RELX and William Bowes, General Counsel at YouGov and co-founder of the AI Manifesto.

Some news, actually

AI Growth Labs, buying more from UK tech companies and regional "growth corridors" — there was plenty for AI firms to cheer in Rachel Reeves' big speech yesterday afternoon.

In case you weren't watching: The chancellor's Mais Lecture started with a diagnosis for the country's ills: a "passive state" which was "ill equipped for technological change". Then came her solutions, split into regional growth, AI, and tighter EU ties.

Clarity: She described the government's AI strategy as four-fold: build enough compute, compete "fiercely" where we have strengths, adoption, and skill up the population.

Nice lines: She promised government would favour buying from British firms, describing procurement as a "startup launch pad" and not a "cheque for global incumbents". She added:

"We won't build a sovereign wall to shelter behind, but rather a sovereign edge."

You already knew this: Reeves confirmed what this briefing told you yesterday ( 😉) on AI Growth Labs, with the business department working on legislation to make them happen.

Shades of grey: That delighted the likes of the Startup Coalition, with its deputy executive director Vinous Ali saying: "We often think of regulation as black and white but for our founders there are lots of grey areas. Any steps the government takes to de-risk innovation and give confidence to the market is hugely welcome."

See you in June: Reeves also announced an AI Adoption Summit this June during London Tech Week and an AI Economics Institute - based on the AI Security Institute model - to examine the impact on jobs and productivity. It will work with the Future of Work Unit in DSIT.

Good policy doesn't need clichés: Politicians love to talk about building the next "Silicon Valley" and Reeves was at it yesterday in her framing of the Ox-Cam corridor whose funding is being doubled to £800m for buying land and building infrastructure. It will be one of several new ‘growth corridors’ across the country, which includes creating a digital campus in Manchester.

Not bad: Antony Walker, Deputy CEO of techUK, described Reeves' announcements as a "significant step forward", but also called for more alignment between tech and energy policy, as well as a "practical, pro-innovation approach" to copyright.

Thanks for reading, over and out,

Tom