- Led by Dr Clementine Collett, University of Cambridge
- Partnered with Institute for the Future of Work
Dr Collett was awarded a BRAID Fellowship in 2024 to develop policy recommendations surrounding generative AI and its impact on novel writing and publishing. She received a funded extension in 2026 to develop this work further, with a focus on the licensing of creative content for AI.
Research and Impact
AI, copyright, and creativity: (socio)technical solutions to licensing.
Dr Clementine Collett’s research on the impact of GenAI on the creative industries.
In November 2025, Dr Clementine Collett (University of Cambridge) released her report on the first piece of BRAID UK research she conducted, ‘The Impact of Generative AI on the Novel’. This urgent piece of research explored how practitioners across the publishing ecosystem, from novelists and editors to agents and publishers, are experiencing and responding to the rapid rise of generative AI sparked national conversation. It received wide-ranging media coverage across broadcast, print and online outlets. Dr Collett presented her research within Parliament, where she facilitated discussion on AI and copyright between creatives and policymakers. The recommendations from her report were put forward in December 2025 by Chris Evans MP in a House of Commons debate on AI Safety.
In 2026, Dr Collett’s fellowship was extended. Her project has shifted to look more broadly across the creative industries and to reflect upon AI, copyright, and the licensing market. Dr Collett is mapping the licensing market for creative content in the UK and exploring how Government and industry can ensure this develops to be responsible and sustainable through integrating the voice(s) of creative workers.
She continues her collaboration with the Institute for the Future of Work (IFOW) and the Minderoo Centre for Technology and Democracy (MCTD) at the University of Cambridge.
Further reading
https://braiduk.org/building-on-success-braid-fellows-project-extensions
https://www.mctd.ac.uk/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/MCTD-AIAndTheNovel-Report-Web.pdf
https://theconversation.com/half-of-uk-authors-fear-ai-could-replace-them-what-my-new-research-suggests-about-the-future-of-the-novel-270527
https://www.ifow.org/news-articles/the-impact-of-generative-ai-on-the-novel
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2025/nov/20/more-than-half-of-uk-novelists-believe-ai-will-replace-their-work
https://www.mctd.ac.uk/watch-ai-v-artists-half-uk-novelists-believe-ai-will-replace-them-clementine-collett-sky-news/
https://committees.parliament.uk/writtenevidence/160942/pdf/
https://openresearch.surrey.ac.uk/esploro/outputs/report/BRAID-researchers-response-to-UK-Government/991054666202346
Biography
Dr Clementine Collett is a BRAID UK Research Fellow at CRASSH and the Minderoo Centre for Technology and Democracy (MCTD) at the University of Cambridge. She works in an industry partnership with the Institute for the Future of Work (IFOW).
Her current project is on ‘AI, copyright, and creativity: sociotechnical solutions to licensing’. Through partnering with industry and policy experts, this work maps the current and potential licensing landscape across the creative industries, assessing avenues and opportunities for ethical and scalable implementation of licensing creative content for AI. It works to co-design socio-technical solutions informed by and reflecting the desires of creatives around control of content, transparency, choice, and fair remuneration.
This follows on from Dr Collett’s research on ‘The impact of generative AI on the novel and publishing’ which showed how GenAI is impacting creatives in the UK. During this, Dr Collett worked with hundreds of published novelists, fiction publishers, and literary agents across the UK. She explored with them how AI is being used in these contexts, how it intersects with creativity, and how these changes affect our literature, our society, and our economy. She also looks at issues around copyright, licensing, and transparency.
Her recent report summarising this research, ‘The Impact of Generative AI on the Novel’, was published in November 2025 alongside a shorter policy brief. Dr Collett was featured on the BBC Radio 4 Today Programme and was also on the Sky News breakfast show discussing the research. The research was also reported on in The Bookseller, BBC, The Guardian, The Independent, The Telegraph, Sky News, as well as making the front page of the Daily Telegraph in print.
Dr Collett has presented her research within Parliament and facilitated discussion on AI and copyright between creatives and policymakers. The recommendations from her report were put forward in December 2025 by Chris Evans MP in a House of Commons debate on AI Safety.
This research comes off the back of seven years investigating the impacts of AI on work. Clementine has a doctorate from the University of Oxford on AI and gender bias. She has written numerous comment pieces, academic papers, and reports on AI and work, including reports for UNESCO, OECD, the IADB, and the LCFI.
She has also appeared on radio, podcasts, and has given talks on these topics around the world, including at leading international conferences and within the UN system.
