Famed entertainer Elton John came out today in defense of music creators and blasted the Labour government that he supported for its AI copyright rules.
John accused Keir Starmer’s government of ‘committing theft’ by allowing tech firms to train artificial intelligence models on the UK’s music catalogue without any sort of recompense.
The legal and ethical implications of AI models are a hot topic, since this technology can produce art work after being ‘trained’ on existing material.
Reuters reported:
“Britain, which Prime Minister Keir Starmer wants to become an AI superpower, has proposed relaxing copyright laws to allow AI developers to train their models on any material to which they have lawful access. The proposal would require creators to proactively opt out to stop their work being used.”
Music heavyweights such as Paul McCartney and Andrew Lloyd Weber have rejected these plans, saying it will make even harder for young creators to make a living.
“’The danger is for young artists, they haven’t got the resources to keep checking or fight big tech’, John told the BBC. ‘It’s criminal and I feel incredibly betrayed’.
‘A machine doesn’t have a soul, doesn’t have a heart, it doesn’t have human feeling, it doesn’t have passion. Human beings, when they create something, are doing it to bring pleasure to lots of people’, he said.”
BBC reported:
“Sir Elton John described the government as ‘absolute losers’ and said he feels ‘incredibly betrayed’ over plans to exempt technology firms from copyright laws.
Speaking exclusively to Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg, he said if ministers go ahead with plans to allow AI firms to use artists’ content without paying, they would be ‘committing theft, thievery on a high scale’.”
This week, the Starmer government rejected proposals coming from the House of Lords to make AI companies disclose what material they were using to develop their programs.
“’The House of Lords did a vote, and it was more than two to one in our favor’, he said. ‘The government just looked at it as if to say, ‘Hmm, well the old people … like me can afford it’.”
Sir Elton John described the Government as “absolute losers” and said he felt “incredibly betrayed” after calls by peers to amend the Data (Use and Access) Bill to include greater copyright protections against artificial intelligence (AI) were resisted pic.twitter.com/r8f1j6NYit
— PA Entertainment (@PAshowbiz) May 18, 2025
“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’.
The singer said that Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer needed to ‘wise up’ and described Technology Secretary Peter Kyle as ‘a bit of a moron’.”
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