The King warned of the threat of artificial intelligence (AI) to the creative industries while honouring one of Britain’s most critically acclaimed authors yesterday.
Sir Kazuo Ishiguro revealed Charles had told him it was ‘important to keep battling’.
The King’s intervention comes after warnings tech giants are looting the work of content creators to train their AI services.
Creatives warn that US-based firms are using online text, images and music to feed their AI models and do not credit those who created it.
The Daily Mail is campaigning for authors, publishers and musicians to be paid a fair price for their work and to have their copyright respected.
Japanese-born Sir Kazuo said of his conversation with the King: ‘This is the third time he’s presented me with something and he alluded to the fact that we keep doing this.
‘He asked me about my writing and he did actually raise the question about AI and the threat to the creative people of AI.
‘He said he thought it was quite important to keep battling on that front.’
King Charles III made Sir Kazuo Ishiguro a companion of honour at Windsor Castle on Monday
The Japanese-born British author (pictured with his medal following his appointment) has revealed his books have been ‘raided’ to train artificial intelligence models
The Nobel prize-winning writer, 70, who moved to the UK as a child, was made a Companion of Honour for services to literature at yesterday’s event at Windsor Castle.
He is one of a number of authors, musicians and artists who signed an open letter protesting against the ‘unlicensed use’ of creative works for training AI systems last year.
He said it posed a ‘major, unjust threat’ to artists’ livelihoods and that using content without credit amounted to ‘theft’.
Sir Kazuo said: ‘I don’t object necessarily to using creative work in the training of AI, it’s the framework in which it’s done.
‘I think many of us are concerned about the fact that the copyrights were completely infringed.
‘Our work was being taken – all my books have been taken to train AI – but if the copyrights can be respected then it can be used in a way that, say, a traditional researcher would use somebody else’s book.
‘Just because it’s AI, it shouldn’t be an excuse to just raid people’s intellectual property.’
The author did, however, say he was ‘quite optimistic’ about the ‘positive benefits’ of AI, saying there were ‘great things’ that could come from it.
He added: ‘But as a society we have to figure out how to do it in a controlled way so that it benefits people.’
He spoke as the House of Lords communications and digital committee began looking into the issue of AI and copyright.
Asked if using other people’s work was not just taking inspiration from them, Tom Kiehl, chief executive of UK Music, said: ‘I don’t think it is inspiration. This is pure theft.
‘Copyright protects the right of a copy and when you’re having systems trained on material, you’re ripping off the copy.’
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King Charles urges critically acclaimed British author to ‘keep battling’ against artificial intelligence – as writer reveals his books were ‘raided’ to train AI