The British Parliament’s Culture, Media and Sport Committee report on the UK’s film and high-end television (HETV) industry includes a thorough assessment of the impact of AI.

Asking ChatGPT-4o: Please read the British film and high-end television reportfrom the Culture, Media and Sports Committee and list everything it says about Artificial Intelligence. Conclude with an overview of recommendations for regulators looking to address both threats and opportunities relevant to AI.

ChatGPT-4o’s answer:

The British Parliament’s Culture, Media and Sport Committee report on the UK’s film and high-end television (HETV) industry includes a thorough assessment of the impact of Artificial Intelligence (AI). Below is a structured summary of all AI-related content, followed by key regulatory recommendations.

🔍 Key Points on Artificial Intelligence in the Report

✅ Opportunities from AI

• Attraction of productions: AI innovation has brought international film projects to the UK, such as Robert Zemeckis’s Here, which used AI to age and de-age actors​.

• Industry enthusiasm: There is wide interest across the film and HETV value chain in embracing AI’s potential​.

• Ethical ambitions: Creatives and producers want to use AI ethically but need support and clarity. Ethical use includes training AI on licensed data, securing informed consent, and ensuring creators are paid​.

• Transparency for audiences: Some stakeholders suggested audiences should be informed when generative AI is used in a film​.

⚠️ Challenges and Risks

⚖️ Copyright and IP

• The industry warned that proceeding with a government-proposed data mining exception (allowing AI training unless rights are explicitly reserved) would be "unfair and unworkable" and might breach international IP treaties​.

• There is strong support for a licensing-based framework for training AI models, with voices like the BFI and Ed Newton-Rex advocating this to maintain the UK’s “gold-standard” copyright regime​​.

💼 Employment and Income

• Generative AI is seen as a direct threat to jobs, particularly for screenwriters, performers, and audio artists. Concerns were raised that AI tools could replace human creatives or reduce their earnings and roles​.

• This fear mirrors the motivations behind the 2023 U.S. writers' and SAG-AFTRA strikes, which led to contractual safeguards for AI usage​.

👤 Performer Rights and Image Protections

• UK performers are not currently protected from unauthorised digital replicas (deepfakes, voice cloning), and many contracts signed before the AI era are now being misused to justify such practices​​.

• There is no legal codification of image rights in the UK to prevent exploitation by AI tools​.

🧭 Regulatory and Industry Actions Suggested

Skills and Support

• Training gaps exist in preparing creatives to use AI. While some training is emerging, salaries in AI firms attract top talent away from film and HETV​.

• The British Film Institute (BFI) is seeking funding for an AI observatory and a tech demonstrator hub to guide the industry in AI adoption​.

Certification and Compliance

• Industry bodies (Pact, Equity, Writers’ Guild) have created ethical guidelines grounded in “human creativity”​.

• A proposed certification scheme, similar to BAFTA’s environmental measures, would validate ethical AI usage. The Government is urged to make such certification mandatory for productions benefiting from UK tax credits or lottery funding​.

🧾 Final Recommendations for Regulators on AI

Based on the Committee's findings and conclusions, the following steps are advised:

1. Fund the BFI’s AI observatory and tech demonstrator hub to provide leadership and education on AI use​.

2. Appoint an AI Sector Champion to co-develop adoption strategies and the ethical certification scheme​.

3. Mandate ethical AI certification for all productions claiming UK government financial incentives​.

4. Reject the rights-reservation (opt-out) data mining model and require licensing for any use of copyrighted material in AI training​.

5. Legislate against historic contract waivers being exploited for AI usage​.

6. Review and reform the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 and the UK GDPR to prevent AI misuse of identity-related data​.

7. Implement the Beijing Treaty to extend unwaivable moral rights to audiovisual performances​.