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<\/p>\nAustralia’s Minister for Innovation Tim Ayres has acknowledged tech companies based overseas are already using Australia content to train AI models, conceding the practice is ‘unethical’.<\/p>\n
“Copyright is only meaningful when there’s a payment involved,” Mr Ayres told triple j hack.<\/p>\n
The comments come after Prime Minister Anthony Albanese announced plans for a new Office of AI on Wednesday.<\/p>\n
The office will work to develop a new set of standards for artificial intelligence development in Australia.<\/p>\n
As part of the plan the Prime Minister re-affirmed a commitment to protecting Australia’s copyright law.<\/p>\n
“No company should use Australian books, music, art or news to build or train AI without the artist’s control,” he said.<\/p>\n
“That includes the artist’s control of the price and value of their work.<\/p>\n
“Anything less, is theft.”<\/p>\n
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Minister for Innovation and Industry Tim Ayres told triple j hack tech companies using Australian content without permission were behaving unethically.<\/p>\n
“We’ve got a responsibility here in Australia to build an Australian answer,” he said.<\/p>\n
Aussie artists already impacted<\/p>\n
Last month American news outlet The Atlantic created a searchable database from four datasets being passed around the AI development community.<\/p>\n
The datasets contain a significant amount of Australian music \u2014 including music from local Perth band Smol Fish.<\/p>\n
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Smol Fish weren’t aware their music had been used to train AI until contacted by triple j hack. (Supplied)<\/p>\n
“I’m kind of confused as to how this is happening,” band member Olive Coakley told triple j hack.<\/p>\n
“It’s, illegal, right? Is it illegal?<\/p>\n
“It should be illegal.”<\/p>\n
The band had no idea their music had been used until they were contacted by triple j hack.<\/p>\n
“We’re just like a little tiny local band and so you think maybe that you’ll be a bit safer or that it would take longer for anyone to try and steal your intellectual property,” Olive said.<\/p>\n
Playlunch, a Melbourne-based band who’s song Keith finished fourth in the Hottest 100 this year, also had music in these AI training datasets.<\/p>\n
Lead-singer Liam Bell told triple j hack the band somewhat expected their music was being taken, but it was still “bizarre”.<\/p>\n
“They haven’t taken our music so that they can use our music \u2026 They’re making something so that we can be obsolete,” he said.<\/p>\n
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Playlunch singer Liam Bell says the band wasn’t surprised to find out their music had been used to train AI models. (triple j)<\/p>\n
He said the band was pretty “pragmatic” about the risks of AI and would focus on creating music that connected with people on a human level.<\/p>\n
“Our job is to focus on making stuff for the people who want to listen to us and who want to engage with us artistically,” Bell told triple j hack.<\/p>\n
“I think if you have a melody stuck in your head, like an earworm that was made by an AI, it’s like having microplastics in your brain,” Bell told triple j hack.<\/p>\n
Ethical AI needed to protect ‘cultural property’<\/p>\n
Perth-based rapper Josh Eggington, or Flewnt, is glad people are starting to take notice now, but wishes more was done to protect First Nations stories years ago.<\/p>\n
“AI can almost spit out and recite its own version of a really old creation, [an] Aboriginal creation story because it’s taught itself on all that material that them old fellas used to tell,” he told triple j hack in an interview before the government’s announcement.<\/p>\n
“My focus would be there first. And how do we start to protect that?”<\/p>\n
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Perth-based rapper Flewnt says tech companies have been using First Nations cultural property to train AI models for a long time. (ABC Radio Perth: Alicia Bridges)<\/p>\n
Flewnt wants to see a shift towards ethical AI where communities have a say about how cultural material is used.<\/p>\n
“I don’t know exactly what that looks like, but definitely permission is one of those things,” he said.<\/p>\n
“Just permission in general on what is entered and not entered into the models is definitely a part of ethical AI.”<\/p>\n
‘Devil in the detail’<\/p>\n
Opposition Leader Angus Taylor has slammed the government’s AI plan, saying it lacks substance.<\/p>\n
“It’s motherhood statements at this point,” Mr Taylor told the Today Show.<\/p>\n