Here's the deal: AI giants get to grab all your data unless you say they can't. Fancy that? No, neither do I Chris Stokel-Walker

Imagine someone drives up to a pub in a top-of-the-range sports car – a 1.5m Koenigsegg Regera, to pick one at random – parks up and saunters out of the vehicle. They come into the pub you're drinking in and begin walking around its patrons, slipping their hand into your pocket in full view, smiling at you as they take out your wallet and empty it of its cash and cards. The not-so-subtle pickpocket stops if you shout and ask what the hell they're doing. "Sorry for the inconvenience," the pickpocket says. Yet it seems to be the approach the government is pursuing in order to placate AI companies. A consultation is soon to open, the Financial Times reports, that will allow AI companies to scrape content from individuals and organisations unless they explicitly opt out of their data being used.