United Kingdom, May 27 -- Former Meta executive Sir Nick Clegg insists artists requiring permission for usage would "basically kill" the AI industry.

The former UK deputy prime minister - who recently stepped won as president of global affairs at Facebook's parent company - believes it's "implausible" for creatives to be asked permission prior to AI systems training on their content.

Speaking at the Charleston Festival recently, he said: "I think the creative community wants to go a step further.

"Quite a lot of voices say, 'You can only train on my content, [if you] first ask'. And I have to say that strikes me as somewhat implausible because these systems train on vast amounts of data."

Clegg believes it would be an instant killer f...