Strikes Minimum Service Levels

There are strikes again this week, by junior doctors, and train and tube drivers. The government's Strikes (Minimum Service Levels) bill aims to require sectors like health, education and transport to provide a "minimum" of services even on strike days. It would let employers, including government departments, issue "work notices" - lists of which staff have to work on strike days. But how will they decide who should be on the "work notice"?

When someone is seriously ill, they or their family are often faced with other problems, such as a sudden drop in income, or unsuitable housing. Many don't know what help they're entitled to, or how to get it. Joshua Rozenberg visits a "Health Justice Partnership", where doctors and legal advisers are located in the same building, and patients are referred to the advice team. He finds it's making a big difference to families.

When a piece of Artificial Intelligence software learns about images by being fed pre-existing, copyrighted versions of images, and then goes on to produce a new image of its own, is that a breach of copyright? That's what the High Court in London will have to decide, in a case in which Getty Images - a digital picture library - is suing Stability AI, whose artificial intelligence image-generating software was trained with a very large number of images, including (but not only) Getty's. The court's decision will in effect become new law. What impact could it have on the digital, creative sector?

Presenter: Joshua Rozenberg Producer: Arlene Gregorius Researcher: Diane Richardson Editor: Simon Watts

Release date

Lydbog: 14. marts 2023