Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:

To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, what steps he is taking to develop technical standards to enable rightsholders to reserve rights if they opt-out of training generative artificial intelligence models.

The Government published a consultation on Copyright and AI in December 2024.

This consultation proposes a new regulatory model for text and data mining, and seeks views on creating an effective rights reservation system.

The implementation of any text and data mining exception is contingent upon having workable technical solutions in place for rights reservation. Some standards already exist and more are in development. If there is a role for Government to play, it is to ensure that standards work for right holders as well as developers, and to facilitate convergence on a manageable set of standards.