UK Creators Demand Payment From AI Firms and Device Makers

Creators and their advocates are calling on artificial intelligence companies and device manufacturers to compensate the artists, writers, and other content producers whose work underpins their products, arguing that existing payment structures leave UK creators at a financial disadvantage compared to peers in dozens of other countries.

The call was prompted by Anthropic's announcement that it would commit 5% of its shares to a fund for the public good. Critics welcomed the gesture but said it sidesteps a more pressing obligation: compensating the creators whose copyrighted material AI systems are trained on. Barbara Hayes, Tayyiba Nasser, Christian Zimmermann, and Paul Seheult argued that payment to creators should precede broader philanthropic commitments.

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The advocates also turned their attention to device manufacturers, contending that smartphones, computers, and similar hardware enable the copying and storage of creative work at scale. Despite this, the United Kingdom does not require private-copying levies — payments made to creators when their work is reproduced for personal use — leaving UK creators without a revenue stream that exists in more than 40 other countries.

If instituted, such levies could generate as much as £300 million annually for UK creators, according to the letter's signatories. The figure underscores the scale of potential compensation that advocates say is being overlooked as the technology sector expands its reliance on creative content. The argument frames creator compensation not as charity but as a structural requirement rooted in the value that creative work provides to the broader digital economy.

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