What is Text and Data Mining (TDM)?
Text & Data Mining (TDM) represents the next wave of innovation that is enabling European governments, researchers, and small businesses to unlock the power of data. TDM generates actionable intelligence from data sets that were once too large and too volatile to analyse, and is driving revolutionary advances in data analytics, machine learning, and artificial intelligence that are helping address some of society’s most pressing challenges.
Why TDM underpins AI?
Text & Data Mining is a building block for both machine and deep learning, which play a foundational role in the development of Artificial Intelligence. Without the ability of computers to access and analyse very large amounts of data and employ cognitive technologies to allow the learning of patterns, technologies such as AI would simply not be possible.
Who is using TDM?
TDM is now used by organizations of all sizes and in every sector of the economy to analyse enormous volumes of data, in line with EU data protection rules, and generate insights that would have been unimaginable just 10 years ago.
Healthcare Industry
During the COVID pandemic, the medical world turned to TDM and AI to review massive amounts of data to advance the search for a vaccine and a cure.
Education Sector
Librarians and teachers are increasingly utilising TDM techniques to discover more effective methods for educa-ting students and informing the general public.
Governments and Public Sector
Governments all over the world are turning to TDM to improve the environment, transportation systems, public services, and safety.
Large Companies and Small, and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs)
Businesses are using TDM to better understand the needs of consumers of their products and services while startups use TDM to build new tools and develop innovations that create new jobs and unlock new opportunities.
New TDM exceptions in Europe’s Copyright Directive
Due to the relevance of Text & Data Mining (TDM), the right exceptions to copyright are required to support the development and training of Artificial Intelligence applications.
EARE successfully advocated for the adoption of a broad text and data mining exception in Europe within the 2019 Directive for Copyright in the Digital Single Market, to generate opportunities from the power of data. This new exception allows all Europeans, public researchers, and commercial entities to perform text and data mining activities on materials they have lawful access to.
Articles 3 and 4 of the new copyright Directive provide much needed clarity for all entities that are at the forefront of the research and innovation ecosystem in Europe, including researchers, libraries, start-ups, SMEs, and technology companies.
This new legislative framework will:
Enable successful research, which is often the result of effective public-private partnerships;
Support the development and growth of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in the European Union;
Promote applications of data analytics and big data and therefore unlock many new business opportunities for innovators in Europe;
Give Europe the tools to compete globally with countries such as the U.S, Japan, and Singapore that have all already adopted TDM-friendly copyright laws.
The Impact of TDM on Artificial Intelligence
Text and Data Mining (TDM) plays a foundational role in the development of Artificial Intelligence (AI) by enabling machines to learn and AI algorithms to better recognise and understand data. TDM is an essential tool for the development of AI, which is a driving force for the digitalisation of industry.
Many countries in the world have understood the link between TDM and AI, as well as the essential role that AI plays in the digitalisation of their industry, and are currently reforming their copyright rules to encourage TDM practices and allow their industry to flourish.
EARE believes that governments should maintain the right balance between protecting copyright and rightsholder’s’ productions to create an enabling environment for Text & Data Mining and AI-based innovations to thrive.