Elton John slams UK government as “absolute losers” over AI plans

Posted On May 18, 2025May 18, 2025

Sir Elton John has criticised the UK government, stating that its stance on AI copyright laws makes it “absolute losers”.

In a new BBC interview, the musician explained that the government is on course to  “rob young people of their legacy and their income”, he said, before adding: “It’s a criminal offence, I think. The government are just being absolute losers, and I’m very angry about it!”

John also brandished Peter Kyle, the technology secretary, “a bit of a moron”. He then promised to take ministers to court if the government did not change its stance on copyright. Rumblings have suggested that Kyle is positioned too close to big tech after a rise in meetings with monopolies like Google, Amazon, Apple and Meta.

The ‘Rocket Man’ singer went on to describe his upset reaction to the government’s removal of an amendment signed by John. Paul McCartney, Coldplay, and Dua Lipa were among over 400 artists who signed the open letter calling for the government to update copyright laws publicly.

In a crunch vote on May 12th, the Labour government gave the letter all but a shrug, despite notable support. John discussed this, stating, “It’s criminal, in that I feel incredibly betrayed: the House of Lords did a vote, and it was more than two to one in our favour, the government just looked at it as if to say: Hmmm, well the old people … like me can afford it.”

Further, the government is reportedly considering a proposal that would allow AI firms to train their models on copyrighted work without permission unless the copyright holder signals they do not want their work used.

Recently, the large streaming platform Soundcloud made headlines after a report suggested that AI models were trained using users’ content. The company clarified: “[We do not] develop AI tools or allow third parties to scrape or use SoundCloud content from our platform for AI training purposes,” and “In fact, we implemented technical safeguards, including a ‘no AI’ tag on our site to explicitly prohibit unauthorised use.”

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