Creative Sovereignty: Securing the UK's Creative Future in the Age of AI

The ongoing debate between AI developers and creative industries is often framed as a simple conflict. On the one side, many in the creative industries feel Silicon Valley has weaponised the web to steal the works of writers, musicians, and artists, using creativity they do not own as raw material for machines that will replace humans. On the other, a data-driven technology sector promises to usher in an age of productivity, economic growth, and job creation. UK policymakers seem stuck in the middle. Despite all the debates and news coverage, the result of all the talk about copyright, optins, opt-outs, infringements, or exemptions in this space is a government position of socalledstrategic pause. This benefits nobody. Framing this as a copyright issue does not tell the whole story or sufficiently articulate the risks facing the UK. If we are headed towards an AI-centric world, who will design and own the technologiesto shape the creative landscape of tomorrow? Who determines how our mediacommunication is worded and shared? What happens to our international influence if we do not control the terms of how our collective story is told? How good is the promise of new jobs if we have no say in the conditions under which those jobs exist? And worse still, if we willingly sell out our globally renownedcreative industries to make that happen? These problems will not be addressed by resolving copyright disputes alone. We argue that what is needed is a coordinated policy of conditions for participation: payment, collective bargaining, transparency, and trust. This fosters the development of an AI sectorunder which the UK has a say, but without undermining the creative industries in the process. These should be preconditions of AI products and services being offered to UK consumers. Our proposal addresses these significant threats to the UK’s creative sovereignty: our cultural soft power and the ways we communicate, create, and dream. In an age that increasingly demands we pick a side, we submit an alternative path for consideration: coexistence. Whether AI does,in fact, rewire the fabric of our society (as we have seen with the web) remains to be seen. But that future should not come at the cost of controlling our collective creativity and the UK’s ability to tell its own story on its own terms. Our desire, vision, and responsibility for a better future do not belong to any one industry, but to us all.