A new data bill under debate in the UK Parliament has triggered sharp divisions between lawmakers, tech leaders, and rights advocates over how far artificial intelligence companies should go in securing permission to use copyrighted content.
The Data (Use and Access) Bill, currently on the floor of Parliament, seeks to regulate how organizations access and utilize customer and user data. But its implications stretch far beyond corporate data handling — touching on the future of the UK’s AI industry, which depends heavily on large-scale data scraping to train machine learning models.
Former Deputy Prime Minister and ex-Meta executive Nick Clegg has weighed in, warning that strict copyright enforcement on training data would cripple AI development in the UK. Speaking at an event to promote his book, How to Save the Internet, Clegg argued that forcing companies to seek permission each time they use copyrighted material would make the industry “unworkable.”
“This kind of regulation could kill the UK’s AI industry overnight,” he said, insisting that publicly available content should be fair game for training AI systems. While he supports the right of creators to opt out, Clegg rejected the idea that AI companies should seek individual permissions for every piece of data.
“People should have clear, easy-to-use ways of saying ‘no,’” Clegg said. “But expecting companies to ask in advance, every time, is incompatible with how the technology works.”
His remarks come amid efforts by a coalition of artists, authors, and digital rights campaigners, led by film director Beeban Kidron, to insert stronger transparency clauses into the bill. The proposed amendment would have required AI firms to disclose which datasets they use during model training. Parliament ultimately rejected the proposal.
The outcome has reignited debate over how to balance innovation with copyright protection, particularly as AI tools grow more sophisticated, and more reliant on creative content generated by humans.
The bill continues to make its way through Parliament, with the final version likely to shape how AI is built and governed in the UK for years to come.
