UK to boost AI development by removing data mining hurdles – TechCrunch

The U.K. is planning to tweak an existing law to allow text and data mining "for any purpose," in a move that's designed to boost artificial intelligence (AI) development across the country. The announcement constitutes part of a broader strategy to "level up" AI and transform the U.K. into what it calls a "global AI superpower" -- and part of this will involve reassessing existing intellectual property (IP) laws. Following a two-month consultation period where stakeholders from across the industrial spectrum were asked for input, including rightsholders, academics, lawyers, trade organisations and businesses, the U.K.'s Intellectual Property Office (IPO) today published its response and confirmed what will (and won't) be changing moving forward. Text and data mining (TDM) is pivotal to the development of new AI applications, allowing researchers and businesses to copy and harness disparate datasets to train their algorithms. However, gaining access to enough relevant data has inherent challenges -- the data is often owned by third-parties that may only want to make data available under a commercial license, if they make it available at all.