Sir Keir Starmer was grilled about proposals to regulate artificial intelligence’s (AI) impact on copyright as he faced questions from a committee of senior MPs.
The Government is currently consulting on plans which could allow AI firms to scrape media companies content, unless they specifically opt out.
The Prime Minister denied the Government’s proposals were akin to allowing a burglar to steal belongings.
Dame Caroline Dinenage, the Conservative chairwoman of the Culture, Media and Sport Committee warned the Prime Minister he was “gambling a world-class British success story” of the creative industries.
She told the Liaison Committee of senior MPs: “The creative industries are worth £125 billion to our economy, they fly our flag around the world and you are gambling them in favour of companies that are already so rich that your own Secretary of State said we need to treat them like nation states.
“Why should these overseas tech giants effectively get a free subsidy on the back of British creatives?”
Sir Keir replied: “I don’t think they should, I think we need to get the balance right, but I also think we have a huge opportunity.
“We are one of the top three in the world in AI at the very point where AI is going to be transformative.
“That puts us in a really good position against our competitors around the world, I don’t want us to lose that edge.”
Dame Caroline had earlier told the Prime Minister the creative industries were an important part of the UK’s economic growth, and had been “growing at twice the rate of the rest of the economy”.
She added: “Yet AI companies have scraped the internet of books, of films, of music, all created by others, without permission.
“It is effective the largest heist of copyright in world history.”
Dame Caroline continued: “You are proposing to take rights away and force creatives to opt back into their own copyright. It is a bit like saying a burglar can nick all your stuff and then that is all fine as long as you have got a sign up saying that that is not okay.”
Sir Keir replied: “I don’t see if like that. I think it is a question of how you get the balance right.
“There are some advocates of opt-in, some advocates of opt-out. We have put a proposal on the table and we are consulting on it, and obviously when that consultation is over we will have a look at the responses we have got.”
He later described the UK’s creative industries as “really important”, and claimed they have “soft power to die for”.