The left-wing UK Labour government is comprised of “absolute losers” according to Sir Elton John, with the rock legend revealing Sunday he feels “incredibly betrayed” over plans to exempt technology firms from copyright laws.
Sir Elton made public his despair in an interview on the BBC. He said if ministers go ahead as planned to allow artificial intelligence (AI) firms to scrape artists’ content without paying, they would be “committing theft, thievery on a high scale.”
The BBC reports this week Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer’s government rejected proposals from the House of Lords to force AI companies to disclose what material they were using to develop their programs.
A government spokesperson said “no changes” to copyright laws would be “considered unless we are completely satisfied they work for creators” as more and more industries race to harness AI for all its worth in the drive to replace the human workforce.
The singer and songwriter said the “danger” now is that, for young artists, “they haven’t got the resources … to fight big tech [firms]”.
“It’s criminal, in that I feel incredibly betrayed,” he added.
“The House of Lords did a vote, and it was more than two to one in our favour,” he said. “The government just looked at it as if to say, ‘Hmm, well the old people … like me can afford it.’”
Sir Elton described the technology secretary, Peter Kyle, as a “bit of a moron” and said he would take ministers to court if the government did not change its plans.
The Guardian reports last week, Kyle was accused of being too close to big tech after analysis showed a sharp increase in his department’s meetings with companies such as Google, Amazon, Apple and Meta since Labour won the election last July.
Sir Elton warned the government was on course to “rob young people of their legacy and their income”, adding that he thought the government was “just being absolute losers, and I’m very angry about it.”
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