The union movement has opened negotiations with the big technology end of town, seeking a way for owners of copyright to benefit when AI scrapes content, currently without permission.
The issue brought cries of “theft” when the Productivity Commission recently proposed a change to copyright law to include a fair dealing exception that would cover text and data mining without permission from copyright owners.
However, the Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU) has claimed a win in talks with the Tech Council of Australia on the sidelines of last week’s economic reform roundtable.
ACTU secretary Sally McManus reported discussions about paying creatives, journalists and academics when their creative work is used to train AI.
“They’ll be crawling all your data. And people whose livelihoods depend on their creative output deserve not to have that stolen from them,” she said.
“And so we’re committed to doing everything we can to address that. It was, I think, a big thing for the Tech Council to step up and say, ‘This is something we’re prepared to work on with you’.”
The Tech Council said it was “hopeful” for AI training in Australia while still protecting creators.
However, media players and representatives of creators believe the current Copyright Act has a framework to protect work.
“The Copyright Act is the law that ensures Australia’s copyright sector and workers are compensated for the use of their work,” News Corp Australia said in a statement.
“It is a strong framework that requires no change.”
Treasurer Jim Chalmers described it as “very heartening” discussion about AI and copyright at the economic reform roundtable.
“Not because everybody came to a perfect agreement on every element of AI regulation … but because we got a bit closer,” he said.
“By sharing understandings in this question, people got a little bit closer together. Not a unanimous view yet, but a little bit closer together. And I see that as a very good thing.
“In terms of the overarching legislative question – one AI Act or using existing regulation – we’re going to do the work on that, the gap analysis of that to see whether we can meet our objectives with existing legislation, or whether it requires one overarching bill.”
The Media, Entertainment & Arts Alliance (MEAA) welcomed the acknowledgment by technology companies of the rights of Australia’s media and creative workforce and willingness to pay for the content they use to develop their highly profitable AI models.
The union was looking forward to sitting down with the Tech Council of Australia and the ACTU to negotiate a deal for fair payment for journalists and creative workers.
“(The) agreement by the Tech Council of Australia is a welcome but long-overdue breakthrough in MEAA’s campaign to ‘Stop Creative Theft’,” MEAA chief executive Erin Madely said
“It is a recognition of the labour rights of our members and their valuable contributions to Australia’s culture, our society and our democracy.
“Media and creative workers have spoken out about the encroachment of artificial intelligence on their jobs and how their voices, music and artwork have been scraped and faked without consent or compensation.
“Finally, the technology industry has agreed to stop the theft.”
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