Arts, creative and media groups have demanded the government rule out allowing big tech companies to take Australian content to train their artificial intelligence models, with concerns such a shift would \u201csell out\u201d Australian workers and lead to \u201crampant theft\u201d of intellectual property.<\/p>\n
The Albanese government has said it has no plans to change copyright law, but any changes must consider effects on artists and news media. The opposition leader, Sussan Ley, has demanded that copyrighted material must not be used without compensation.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is not appropriate for big tech to steal the work of Australian artists, musicians, creators, news media, journalism, and use it for their own ends without paying for it,\u201d Ley said on Wednesday.<\/p>\n
In an interim report on \u201charnessing data and digital technology\u201d, the Productivity Commission set out proposals for how tech including AI could be regulated and treated in Australia<\/a>, suggesting it could boost productivity by between 0.5% and 13% over the next decade, adding up to $116bn to Australia\u2019s GDP.<\/p>\n The report said building AI models required large amounts of data, and several stakeholders in the field, including Creative Australia and the Copyright Agency, had \u201cexpressed concern about the unauthorised use of copyrighted materials to train AI models\u201d.<\/p>\n The PC suggested several possible remedies, including expanding licensing schemes, or an exemption for \u201ctext and data mining\u201d and expanding the existing fair dealing rules, which the commission said existed in other countries.<\/p>\n The latter suggestion prompted fierce pushback from arts, creative and media companies, which raised alarm their work could be left open for massively wealthy tech companies to use \u2013 without compensation or payment \u2013 to train AI models.<\/p>\n Such moves could undermine licensing deals currently being negotiated by publishers and creatives with big tech companies. It would also raise questions about the viability of the news media bargaining incentive<\/a>, where news publishers strike commercial deals with major social media networks for the use of their journalism online.<\/p>\n Sign up: AU Breaking News email<\/a><\/p>\n The Australian Council of Trade Unions accused the Productivity Commission of having \u201cswallowed the arguments of large multinational tech companies hook, line and sinker\u201d, warning its approach would do little to help working Australians.<\/p>\n \u201cThe report\u2019s extensive canvassing of the possibility of a text and data mining exemption opens the door to legitimising the rampant theft of the creative output of Australia\u2019s creative workers and of Indigenous cultural and intellectual property,\u201d the ACTU said.<\/p>\n Joseph Mitchell, the ACTU assistant secretary, said such an exemption would create a situation where \u201ctech bros get all the benefits of the new technology and productivity benefits are not fairly shared\u201d.<\/p>\n Apra chair Jenny Morris is among the critics of a potential exemption for \u2018text and data mining\u2019 to train AI models. Photograph: AAP<\/p>\n Apra Amcos, Australasia\u2019s music rights collecting agency, and the National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Music Office said they were disappointed at the commission\u2019s suggestions, raising concerns about such moves \u201cpotentially devastating Australia\u2019s $9bn music industry\u201d.<\/p>\n Apra\u2019s chair, Jenny Morris, claimed the recommendations would \u201clegitimise what they themselves acknowledge is already widespread theft\u201d.<\/p>\n The attorney general, Michelle Rowland, who has carriage over copyright law, said further adoption of AI must be done in a way to build trust and confidence.<\/p>\n \u201cAny potential reform to Australia\u2019s copyright laws must consider the impacts on Australia\u2019s creative, content and news media sectors. I am committed to continuing to engage on these issues including through the Copyright and AI Reference Group<\/a> that our government established last year,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n skip past newsletter promotion<\/a><\/p>\n Sign up to Breaking News Australia<\/p>\n Get the most important news as it breaks<\/p>\n Privacy Notice: Newsletters may contain info about charities, online ads, and content funded by outside parties. For more information see our Privacy Policy<\/a>. We use Google reCaptcha to protect our website and the Google Privacy Policy<\/a> and Terms of Service<\/a> apply.<\/p>\n after newsletter promotion<\/p>\n Ley, asked about the PC report, said she was concerned about a lack of \u201cguardrails\u201d from the government in responding to AI challenges.<\/p>\n \u201cWe have to protect content creators \u2026 that work is theirs and it can\u2019t be taken without it being paid for,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n The treasurer, Jim Chalmers, said he believed AI could be \u201ca force for good\u201d, but acknowledged risks in the expanding technology.<\/p>\n \u201cThe only way to make our people and workers and industries beneficiaries is if we treat AI as an enabler, not an enemy of what we want to see in our economy,\u201d he told a press conference in Parliament House.<\/p>\n He pointed out that copyright laws apply in Australia, which he said was in contrast to some other countries, and that the government was not seeking to change those laws.<\/p>\n The arts minister, Tony Burke, pointed to a submission to the review from Creative Australia, which he said \u201cmakes clear that with respect to copyright and labelling, there needs to be consent, transparency and remuneration\u201d.<\/p>\n The Australian Publishers Association raised fears about authors, researchers and publishers having their work used without permission or compensation, which it said would undermine local publishing, as well as federal government cultural policy.<\/p>\n \u201cWe support responsible innovation, but this draft proposal rewards infringers over investors,\u201d said Patrizia Di Biase-Dyson, APA\u2019s CEO.<\/p>\n \u201cWe reject the notion that Australian stories and learning materials \u2013 that shape our culture and democracy \u2013 should be treated as free inputs for corporate AI systems.\u201d<\/p>\n The Copyright Agency also opposed the text and data mining exemption, saying it would negatively affect creators\u2019 earning capacity.<\/p>\n \u201cThe push to water down Australia\u2019s copyright system comes from multinational tech companies, and is not in the national interest,\u201d said CEO Josephine Johnston. \u201cIf we want high-quality Australian content to power the next phase of AI, we must ensure creators are paid for it.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Arts, creative and media groups have demanded the government rule out allowing big tech companies to take Australian…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":62139,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[45],"tags":[182,181,507,74],"class_list":["post-62138","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-artificial-intelligence","tag-ai","tag-artificial-intelligence","tag-artificialintelligence","tag-technology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62138","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=62138"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62138\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/62139"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=62138"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=62138"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=62138"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}