Conservative backbench MP Matt Warman and Shadow Minister for Tech, Gambling, and the Digital Economy, Alex Davies-Jones asserted that transparency requirements for AI systems such as ChaGPT are key. This is something that the PPA briefed MPs on as a key priority for the special interest and magazine media industry as transparency requirements are key to understanding how publishers’ data is being scraped and used, and where the industry must seek redress or compensation for market failures.

Science and Technology Committee Chair Greg Clark and SNP spokesperson for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport John Nicolson both highlighted the PPA’s concerns that the Government needs to address the copyright issues stemming from recent developments with AI. This resonates greatly with the messaging the PPA put out to these parliamentarians about how our existing copyright laws must not be eroded in the context of AI.

Additionally, Clark also stressed that “regulators, in particular our competition regulators, will need to pay attention to [the danger of market power being concentrated by] a very small number of companies, [at the expense of contestability and competition]”. This aligns with the calls the PPA has been making to MPs to ensure that the competition regulator is equipped to address market power obtained by companies who own AI systems.

This comes after the PPA submitted a response to the Government’s White Paper on AI, which the Government has said it will submit a formal response to within the next few months.

Next steps: In the meantime, the PPA will continue to lobby MPs, Government, and regulatory officials to raise awareness about the urgent need for action to tackle the lack of Intellectual Property protection in regard to AI.