The government has ruled out letting AI companies ingest vast amounts of copyright content for free, in a win for creators and potential setback for tech firms.
The idea was first raised by Atlassian co-founder and Tech Council chief Scott Farquhar, who argued in July that the right of AI developers to use creative content to train their models should be enshrined in copyright law.
The Productivity Commission then sought to directly canvas opinion on changes to the Copyright Act via an interim report [pdf] last month.
Companies such as OpenAI and Google, developers of AI tools like ChatGPT and Gemini, have also called for specific exemptions to develop their models.
But the government has now ruled out changes, to the relief of creative content producers.
Federal Attorney-General Michelle Rowland said the government will not provide exceptions to text and data mining companies in any revision of copyright laws.
“This government has repeatedly said that there are no plans to weaken copyright protection when it comes to AI,” Rowland said in a statement.
“The tech industry and the creative sector must now come together and find sensible and workable solutions to support innovation while ensuring creators are compensated.
“The government will support these next steps through the renewed focus tasked to the copyright and AI reference group.”
Over the next two days, a copyright and AI reference group will hold talks to discuss Australia’s rules around copyright-protected material in the age of AI, with the intention of protecting creatives while “unlocking new uses of copyright material”, Rowland said.
Priorities for the group will include encouraging fair and legal avenues for using copyright material for training AI models, improving clarity for the rules around using copyright material in AI tools, and ways to enforce copyright rules through a “potential new small claims forum”.
The announcement has been welcomed by Australian creative industries groups, such as the Australian Recording Industry Association, the Australian Society of Authors, Screenrights and APRA AMCOS.
“The Australian government has recognised that Australia’s world-leading licensing framework is the pathway to ethical AI development, not a barrier to innovation,” APRA AMCOS chief Dean Ormston said.
It has also been welcomed by News Corp Australia’s executive chairman Michael Miller, who previously labeled the potential impacts of AI tools “Grand Theft Australia”.
“The government has made the correct decision to maintain Australia’s copyright settings and forego a text and data mining exception,” Miller said.
“The government’s announcement is a welcome catalyst for tech and AI companies to license Australian content.”
Tech Council of Australia said it would participate “in the reference group in coming days to help develop a framework which we hope will deliver certainty for AI training as well as for artists and creators.”
