STM responds to Singapore consultation on AI and intellectual property

STM has submitted a response to Singapore’s public consultation on artificial intelligence and intellectual property.

In its response, STM supports the responsible development of AI while also calling for firm legal, ethical and safety guardrails, meaningful transparency, and respect for copyright. STM argues that Singapore should clarify and tighten, rather than broaden, its computational data analysis (CDA) exception, which it considers already exceptionally broad and capable of permitting uses that exceed international copyright norms and prejudice the legitimate interests of copyright owners.

In particular, STM emphasises that LLM training should sit outside the activities permitted by the CDA exception. An interpretation of the exception as encompassing AI training risks undermining the growing voluntary licensing market for copyrighted works and weakening rightsholders’ ability to control and license the use of their content.

STM also underscores the importance of lawful access requirements, support for market-based licensing, meaningful transparency around the use of protected content in AI systems, and enforceable mechanisms that allow rightsholders to protect their works.