Performing arts leaders issue copyright warning over UK government’s AI plans

In a statement, 35 signatories from dance, theatre and music industries express concern about ‘fragile ecosystem’

More than 30 performing arts leaders in the UK, including the bosses of the National Theatre, Opera North and the Royal Albert Hall, have joined the chorus of creative industry concern about the government’s plans to let artificial intelligence companies use artists’ work without permission.

In a statement they said performing arts organisations depend on a “fragile ecosystem” of freelancers who rely on copyright to sustain their livelihoods. They also urged the government to support the “moral and economic rights” of the creative community in music, dance, drama and opera.

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UK politics: Unison attacks ‘shambolic’ announcement of NHS England’s abolition – as it happened

Union says staff will have been left reeling after surprise news that body will be scrapped

Starmer is now talking about regulatation, and giving examples of where he thinks it has gone too far.

l give you an example. There’s a office conversion in Bingley, which, as you know, is in Yorkshire. That is an office conversion that will create 139 homes.

But now the future of that is uncertain because the regulator was not properly consulted on the power of cricket balls. That’s 139 homes. Now just think of the people, the families, the individuals who want those homes to buy, those homes to make their life and now they’re held up. Why? You’ll decide whether this is a good reason because I’m going to quote this is the reason ‘because the ball strike assessment doesn’t appear to be undertaken by a specialist, qualified consultant’. So that’s what’s holding up these 139 homes.

When we had those terrible riots … what we saw then, in response, was dynamic. It was strong, it was urgent. It was what I call active government, on the pitch, doing what was needed, acting.

But for many of us, I think the feeling is we don’t really have that everywhere all of the time at the moment.

The state employs more people than we’ve employed for decades, and yet look around the country; do you see good value everywhere? Because I don’t.

I actually think it’s weaker than it’s ever been, overstretched, unfocused, trying to do too much, doing it badly, unable to deliver the security that people need.

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US to revoke student visas over ‘pro-Hamas’ social media posts flagged by AI – report

State department launches AI-assisted reviews of accounts to look for what it perceives as Hamas supporters

The US state department will use artificial intelligence to revoke visas of foreign students who it perceives as supporters of Hamas, Axios reported on Thursday, citing senior state department officials.

Donald Trump signed an executive order in January to combat antisemitism and has pledged to deport non-citizen college students and others who took part in pro-Palestinian protests that have been ongoing for months amid Israel’s military assault on Gaza after Hamas’s October 2023 attack.

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Some British firms ‘stuck in neutral’ over AI, says Microsoft UK boss

Survey of bosses and staff finds that more than half of executives feel their organisation has no official AI plan

Some companies are “stuck in neutral” in their approach to artificial intelligence, according to Microsoft’s UK boss, who said a significant number of private and public sector organisations lack any formal AI strategy.

A Microsoft survey of nearly 1,500 UK senior leaders across public and private sectors, as well as 1,440 employees, found that more than half of executives feel their organisation has no official AI plan. Roughly the same proportion report a growing gap in productivity – a measure of economic efficiency – between employees who use AI and those who do not.

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The LA Times published an op-ed warning of AI’s dangers. It also published its AI tool’s reply

‘Insight’ labeled the argument ‘center-left’ and created a reply insisting AI will make storytelling more democratic

Beneath a recent Los Angeles Times opinion piece about the dangers of artificial intelligence, there is now an AI-generated response about how AI will make storytelling more democratic.

“Some in the film world have met the arrival of generative AI tools with open arms. We and others see it as something deeply troubling on the horizon,” the co-directors of the Archival Producers Alliance, Rachel Antell, Stephanie Jenkins and Jennifer Petrucelli, wrote on 1 March.

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Paris trials dedicated car-sharing lane on its notoriously congested ring road

Busiest urban motorway in Europe restricted mainly to vehicles carrying at least two people during rush-hour

Authorities in Paris have created a dedicated car-sharing lane during rush-hour on its notorious ring road as part of efforts to reduce congestion and pollution on one of Europe’s busiest motorways.

Paris city hall began the trial scheme on Monday, restricting the outside lane of the périphérique to passenger vehicles carrying at least two people from 7am to 10.30am and 4pm to 8pm. The lane will also be available to public transport, taxis, the emergency services and vehicles used by disabled people.

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Two Australian men charged in global investigation into AI-made child abuse images

Dozens including man from Queensland and man from NSW arrested as part of international operation

Two Australian men have been charged during a global operation into a criminal group distributing artificial intelligence-generated child abuse images.

A 38-year-old NSW man and 31-year-old Queensland man have been arrested alongside a total of 25 linked to the investigation into child sexual exploitation.

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Nvidia beats Wall Street expectations in first earnings after DeepSeek’s AI debut

Investors were eyeing the firm for signs of slowing demand after revelation high-end chips not necessary, but found few

Nvidia surpassed investor expectations for the fourth quarter of 2024 with a 78% jump in revenue year over year.

The company reported $39.3bn in revenue, beating analyst projections of $38.25bn. It also reported $0.89 in earnings a share on Wednesday, beating expectations of $0.84.

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UK delays plans to regulate AI as ministers seek to align with Trump administration

Exclusive: Government reluctant to take action that could weaken UK’s attractiveness to AI firms, says Labour source

Ministers have delayed plans to regulate artificial intelligence as the UK government seeks to align itself with Donald Trump’s administration on the technology, the Guardian has learned.

A long-awaited AI bill, which ministers had originally intended to publish before Christmas, is not expected to appear in parliament before the summer, according to three Labour sources briefed on the plans.

Ministers had intended to publish a short bill within months of entering office that would have required companies to hand over large AI models such as ChatGPT for testing by the UK’s AI Security Institute.

The bill was intended to be the government’s answer to concerns that AI models could become so advanced that they pose a risk to humanity, and were different from separate proposals to clarify how AI companies can use copyrighted material.

Trump’s election has led to a rethink, however. A senior Labour source said the bill was “properly in the background” and that there were still “no hard proposals in terms of what the legislation looks like”. “They said let’s try and get it done before Christmas – now it’s summer,” the source added.

Another Labour source briefed on the legislation said an iteration of the bill had been prepared months ago but was now up in the air because of Trump, with ministers reluctant to take action that could weaken the UK’s attractiveness to AI companies.

Trump has torpedoed plans by his predecessor Joe Biden for regulating AI and revoked an executive order on making the technology safe and trustworthy. The future of the US AI Safety Institute, founded by Biden, is uncertain after its director resigned this month. At an AI summit hosted in Paris, JD Vance, the US vice-president, railed against Europe’s planned regulation of the technology.

The UK government chose to side with the US by refusing to sign the Paris declaration endorsed by 66 other countries at the summit. Peter Mandelson, the UK’s ambassador to Washington, has reportedly drafted proposals to make the UK the main hub for US AI investment.

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Don’t gift our work to AI billionaires: Mark Haddon, Michal Rosen and other creatives urge government

More than 2,000 cultural figures challenge Whitehall’s eagerness ‘to ­wrap our lives work in attractive paper for automated competitors’

Original British art and creative skill is in peril thanks to the rise of AI and the government’s plans to loosen ­copyright rules, some of the UK’s leading cultural figures have said.

More than 2,000 people, including leading creative names such as Mark Haddon, Axel Scheffler, Benji Davies and Michael Rosen, have signed a ­letter published in the Observer today calling on the government to keep the legal safeguards that offer artists and writers the prospect of a ­sustainable income.

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EU accused of leaving ‘devastating’ copyright loophole in AI Act

Architect of copyright law says EU is ‘supporting big tech instead of protecting European creative ideas’

An architect of EU copyright law has said legislation is needed to protect writers, musicians and creatives left exposed by an “irresponsible” legal gap in the bloc’s Artificial Intelligence Act.

The intervention came as 15 cultural organisations wrote to the European Commission this week warning that draft rules to implement the AI Act were “taking several steps backwards” on copyright, while one writer spoke of a “devastating” loophole.

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Elon Musk says he’ll drop his $97bn bid for OpenAI if it remains a non-profit

Billionaire’s lawyers say offer will be withdrawn if firm he helped found a decade ago ‘preserves the charity’s mission’

Elon Musk says he will abandon his $97.4bn offer to buy the non-profit behind OpenAI if the ChatGPT maker drops its plan to convert into a for-profit company.

“If OpenAI, Inc’s Board is prepared to preserve the charity’s mission and stipulate to take the ‘for sale’ sign off its assets by halting its conversion, Musk will withdraw the bid,” lawyers for the billionaire said in a filing to a California court on Wednesday. “Otherwise, the charity must be compensated by what an arms-length buyer will pay for its assets.”

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US and UK not among signatories of Paris AI summit declaration

Two countries have not immediately explained reasons for not signing communique

The US and the UK have reportedly not signed the Paris AI summit’s declaration on “inclusive and sustainable” artificial intelligence.

The communique states that among priorities are “ensuring AI is open, inclusive, transparent, ethical, safe, secure and trustworthy, taking into account international frameworks for all” and “making AI sustainable for people and the planet”.

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UK copyright law consultation ‘fixed’ in favour of AI firms, peer says

Exclusive: Beeban Kidron says plans will lead to ‘wholesale’ transfer of wealth from creative industries to tech sector

A consultation on changes to UK copyright law is “fixed” in favour of artificial intelligence companies and will lead to a “wholesale” transfer of wealth from the creative industries to the tech sector, according to a crossbench peer campaigning against the mooted overhauls.

Beeban Kidron said the government was undermining its own growth agenda with proposals to let AI companies train their algorithms on creative works under a new copyright exemption.

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AI phone scam targets Italian business leaders including Giorgio Armani

Cloned voice of defence minister, Guido Crosetto, used in some calls asking for money to free kidnapped journalists

Some of Italy’s best-known business leaders, including the fashion designer Giorgio Armani and the Prada chair, Patrizio Bertelli, have been targeted by an artificial intelligence-based scam that involved the mimicking of the defence minister’s voice in telephone calls claiming to seek help to free Italian journalists kidnapped in the Middle East.

Prosecutors in Milan have received four legal complaints, including from Massimo Moratti, the former owner of Inter Milan, and a member of the Beretta family, the world’s oldest producer of firearms. The defence minister, Guido Crosetto, on Monday said he would submit a legal complaint after his voice was cloned and used in at least one of the calls.

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DeepSeek banned from Australian government devices over national security concerns

Home affairs minister Tony Burke says decision follows advice from intelligence agencies and is not impacted by AI chatbot’s country of origin, China

DeepSeek will be banned from all federal government devices as the Albanese government cracks down on the Chinese AI chatbot, citing unspecified national security risks.

The launch of DeepSeek’s AI generative chatbot rocked US tech stocks last week amid concerns over censorship and data security.

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NHS to launch world’s biggest trial of AI breast cancer diagnosis

If successful, the scheme could speed up testing and reduce radiologists’ workload by around half

The NHS is launching the world’s biggest trial of artificial intelligence to detect breast cancer, which could lead to faster diagnosis of the disease.

AI will be deployed to analyse two-thirds of at least 700,000 mammograms done in England over the next few years to see if it is as accurate and reliable at reading scans as a radiologist.

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AI systems could be ‘caused to suffer’ if consciousness achieved, says research

Experts and thinkers signed open letter expressing concern over irresponsible development of technology

Artificial intelligence systems capable of feelings or self-awareness are at risk of being harmed if the technology is developed irresponsibly, according to an open letter signed by AI practitioners and thinkers including Sir Stephen Fry.

More than 100 experts have put forward five principles for conducting responsible research into AI consciousness, as rapid advances raise concerns that such systems could be considered sentient.

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AI tools used for child sexual abuse images targeted in Home Office crackdown

UK will be first country to bring in tough new laws to tackle the technology behind the creation of abusive material

Britain is to become the first country to introduce laws tackling the use of AI tools to produce child sexual abuse images, amid warnings from law enforcement agencies of an ­alarming proliferation in such use of the technology.

In an attempt to close a legal ­loophole that has been a major ­concern for police and online safety campaigners, it will become illegal to possess, create or distribute AI tools designed to generate child sexual abuse material.

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As DeepSeek upends the AI industry, one group is urging Australia to embrace the opportunity

Recruiting top graduates could stop other countries pulling ahead in artificial intelligence race, tech council says

One Australian company has discouraged staff from using the technology, others are scrambling for advice on its cybersecurity implications – while federal government ministers are urging caution.

But others have welcomed DeepSeek’s arrival, calling for Australia to follow China’s lead in developing powerful yet less energy-intensive AI technology.

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