A Labour MP in the UK who has written for TV shows claims artificial intelligence (AI) companies are committing "theft on an industrial scale", writes Paul Revoir.
Alison Hume, whose credits include BBC crime drama New Tricks, revealed she has learned her own work has been "scraped".
She is one of a number of MPs and leading industry figures raising concerns about the threat posed to creative industries by AI amid accusations the British Government is pandering to tech giants.
Ministers in the UK are proposing big companies be allowed to ignore traditional copyright rules when training AI systems, suggesting creative organisations opt out if they do not want work exploited.
But Beeban Kidron, who directed Bridget Jones: The Edge Of Reason, believes it could result in a "wholesale" shift of wealth from creative organisations to the tech industry.
Ms Hume yesterday told the UK Parliament: "Subtitles from one of my episodes of New Tricks have been scraped [unauthorised copying] and are being used to create learning materials for AI.
"Along with thousands of other films and TV shows, my work is being used by AI to write scripts which one day may replace versions produced by mere humans like me.
"This is theft, and it's happening on an industrial scale."
Labour suffered its first Parliamentary defeat in government recently when peers backed reforms to stop tech firms ignoring copyright rules.
Technology Secretary Peter Kyle insisted the UK has an ability to support a "cutting-edge AI sector, with world-leading creative industries".
