UK weighs creator protections as generative AI strains copyright rules

The Communications and Digital Committee’s 2026 report, AI, Copyright and the Creative Industries, warns that generative AI poses significant risks to creators and rightsholders by enabling protected works to be used for model training without consent, payment or adequate transparency. Limited visibility into training data leaves rightsholders unable to know whether their works have been used and makes enforcement difficult.

The report recommends ruling out a broad commercial text and data mining exception, strengthening protections against unauthorised digital replicas and “in the style of” outputs, and making AI training data transparency a statutory obligation. It also calls for a fair UK licensing market, stronger technical standards for provenance and labelling, and support for UK sovereign AI models.

On 15 May 2026, the Government said it would not introduce copyright reforms until any changes meet its objectives for the economy and UK citizens. Its next steps include consultations and reviews on digital replicas, AI labelling, creator control online and licensing support for smaller creative organisations. The Government also pointed to the Creative Content Exchange pilot and the Sovereign AI Unit, launched in April 2026 with £500 million in investment and R&D funding for UK AI businesses.