THE government must “play catch-up” in reforming outdated copyright and intellectual property (IP) laws to prevent original artists, musicians and writers becoming the “poor relations” of AI developers, MPs say in a report published today.

The Commons culture, media and sport committee calls for a “definitive deadline” to be set, after which the government would legislate to ensure artists, a third of whom are self-employed, receive fair compensation when their work is used by AI developers.

The MPs say: “We are concerned that the status quo simply favours AI developers, given creators’ concerns that their IP is already being used in AI development without licence or any practical means of recourse.”