‘Under the bus’: Artists sound alarm on latest AI copyright deal

Artists are pleading with the prime minister to keep his word and protect them from copyright “theft” as Labor mulls granting AI giants greater access to Australian content.

While the crossbench is demanding the government stare down tech giants that want to scrape the work of creators, a Coalition frontbencher has called for a deal to be struck by the end of the year, insisting a delay would damage national security.

The government is considering giving AI firms access to Australian content if they strike enough deals with companies to pay for the work. Copyright holders would have to opt out, or their content would be free to scrape.

Independent senator David Pocock on Wednesday accused Labor of “throwing creators under the bus”.

“I think we should do better as a country,” Pocock told ABC radio.

The government is racing to shore up data centre investment – worth billions to the Australian economy – even as it takes on tech giants over social media harms and against a backdrop of industry insiders warning that AI “could kill us all”.

Stasiland and Wifedom author Anna Funder implored the prime minister to see through what she said was a disingenuous attempt by AI companies to link weaker copyright laws to greater data centre expansion.

“The government seems to have been swayed by some really false presumptions that are being put forward by AI companies,” the University of Sydney professor said.

“Why any country would decimate its creative industries, all writing, all music, all art, and allow that to be fed into these tech companies’ computer programs is beyond me.”

Funder added that the money dispensed by existing copyright funds, such as when universities use creators’ work, were not enough to make a living, and called for deals to be negotiated individually.

Liberal senator James Paterson agreed creators should be paid for their work, but also warned the window to secure data centre investment would not be open forever, and that Australia was at risk of losing to other countries if it held out hope of a better deal for too long.

He called for negotiations to be resolved by the end of the year to prevent Australia becoming a “sitting duck for criminals, for nation states”, or at the mercy of the United States revoking access to models.

Paterson acknowledged the warnings from AI insiders that the technology was a growing threat to humanity, saying they should not be dismissed lightly.

“But in my view, it’s not a reason to stop, and I think it would be very challenging to achieve an enforceable global agreement to stop the development of AI.”

Shadow attorney-general Michaelia Cash and opposition communications spokeswoman Sarah Henderson issued a statement on Tuesday night saying the proposal amounted to another lie from Anthony Albanese.

“This is a text and data mining exception with an opt-out bolted on. It is precisely what the government said it had ruled out,” Cash said.

Australian Society of Authors chief executive Lucy Hayward accused tech giants of “strong-arming” the federal government into changing copyright laws to suit their business models.

“We cannot shift the burden to creators to try to protect their work online and police any continued infringement by big tech. AI developers could not even abide by our current opt-in system – on what basis can we trust they will abide by an opt-out?” Hayward said.

Leading AI researcher and author Professor Toby Walsh accused the Albanese government of abandoning its commitment to Australian creators to appease global tech giants.

“The prime minister promised not to sell out the creative industries, and he seems to be selling out the creative industries,” Walsh said. “He promised not to change copyright law and he’s going to change copyright law.”

In July, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese used a speech at Sydney University to insist he would not give up the rights to Australian music and publishing content to US firms to train their models.

He argued such a move would amount to “theft” and flagged a novel solution to allow firms to pay for material.

Greens communications spokeswoman Sarah Hanson-Young said the government needed to pause AI development in Australia and uphold copyright laws.

“While tech bros are warning that they cannot be trusted to not end humanity, they are also asking our government to give them free access to all of our content. Their audacity is gobsmacking,” the senator said in a statement.

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