‘An existential threat’: anger over UK government plans to allow AI firms to scrape content

Publishers used to be willing to allow search engines access to content, but chatbots have enabled users to receive as much information as they need without ever seeing the original publisher’s work. Photograph: Boumen Japet/Alamy

Ministers are facing a major backlash over plans that would allow artificial intelligence companies to scrape content from publishers and artists, amid claims that the government risks “giving in” to the tech giants.

The BBC is among the organisations opposing a plan that would allow tech companies to train artificial intelligence models using online content by default, unless publishers and other content creators specifically “opt out”.