OpenAI and Google reject the UK's proposal to allow training AI on copyrighted work without permission unless rights holders opt out to “reserve their rights”
The U.K. government's AI copyright plans can't seem to please anyone. — LONDON — Leading AI companies OpenAI …
Context & Ripple Effects
The proposal emerged from the U.K.’s renewed attempt to resolve an issue it had previously deferred after creators and technology groups failed to find common terms: earlier efforts to publish AI-training rules were shelved. Its December consultation put an opt-out copyright exception back at the center of the debate.
This matters because the proposed default does not satisfy either side of the policy trade-off. Google had already argued that looser rules for training data were important to the country’s AI competitiveness, while the consultation sought to give rights holders a mechanism to withhold works.
First-order effects
- OpenAI and Google’s rejection deprives the opt-out model of support from two major prospective users, increasing pressure on the U.K. to revise the proposal rather than present it as a workable compromise.
- Rights holders gain evidence that the dispute is not simply creators versus AI developers: major developers are also contesting how permissions, reservations of rights, and compliance would operate.
Second-order effects
- A less settled U.K. rulebook makes training-data planning harder for model developers and content owners, sustaining incentives to negotiate licensing arrangements or seek clearer contractual permissions.
- Other AI companies and creative-industry groups will have more reason to press for alternatives that shift the burden of identifying usable works, potentially turning consultation design and transparency requirements into the next battleground.
Third-order effects
- If opt-out regimes repeatedly fail to win support from both developers and rights holders, AI copyright policy is likely to move toward more explicit rules on data access, disclosure, and compensation rather than broad default exceptions.
- The broader structural question is whether copyright becomes a market for licensed training inputs—an instance of AI content commercialization—or remains governed mainly through statutory exceptions; this episode underscores that neither outcome is yet settled.
The trend: Governments are finding that AI-training copyright regimes must balance model access with creator control, pushing policy toward more formalized rules for commercial data use.