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AI giants’ offer to create a fund to pay artists in exchange for a copyright exemption has received a frosty reception from Labor, deadlocking negotiations over Australia’s digital future as Prime Minister Anthony Albanese fronts up to a fractious debate about job losses and energy use of data centres.
As One Nation and residents’ groups ramp up campaigns against data centres, the prime minister will deliver a speech on Wednesday, titled AI in Australia’s interests, on the technology reshaping many facets of the economy and society.
His speech in Sydney will lay out new principles and policies on the use of AI and put the hard word on firms, which he says must earn their social licence. Albanese’s decision to deliver a keynote speech on AI reflects increasing levels of opposition to data centres overseas and fears of worker displacement, particularly as a populist backlash exploits economic anxieties after years of high inflation.
But it is unclear if Albanese’s doctrine will create tangible regulations or focus more on high-level principles, given Australia has minimal influence on global tech regulation.
Trade-offs in the AI policy debate are exposed in a tussle between the Albanese government and AI giants on whether copyright laws should be waived so companies including Anthropic can train their models in Australia.
Australia has been the second-largest destination for data centre investment after the US, propping up Australia’s mediocre rate of GDP growth. Tech firms have offered to pay into a fund that would be dispersed to musicians and artists in exchange for a copyright exemption. However, artists have rejected the proposal, and Labor ministers are not inclined to back the idea of a new fund.
Government sources familiar with thinking inside Labor said the preferred option was for companies such as OpenAI and Google to strike up deals with copyright holders, as some have been doing with news publishers such as Nine, the owner of this masthead, which recently finalised an agreement with Microsoft.
“The government encourages the tech industry and the creative sector to come together and find sensible and workable solutions to support innovation while ensuring creators are fairly compensated,” a government spokesman said.
Huge sums are on the line in the copyright talks. Anthropic has suggested its $21.5 billion investment in Australia, which would make Australia its second home for training models, was contingent on updated copyright laws.
UNSW AI Institute chief scientist Toby Walsh said Australia should not “capitulate” on copyright because AI companies were showing around the world that they were willing to pay.
Walsh said he was “pleased to see the government waking up” to the consequences of AI and becoming a “bit more interventionist”.
Although he also told ABC TV that Australia was well behind competitor nations such as South Korea in making investments in AI outside of data centres, on things such as new models and training Australians to use the technology.
A new report last week from the Department of Employment and Workplace Relations, one of the closest looks at AI in Australia to date, found that the technology had not yet had a major effect on employment. It did detect early signs that job growth was weaker in areas most affected by AI.
On this basis, the Business Council of Australia is fighting the prospect of granting unions a veto over how AI is used in firms.
“The best available evidence shows that fears of mass job displacement from AI have not materialised. Of course, businesses should take these concerns seriously in terms of how they engage with their workforces, but the regulatory response should be proportionate to the evidence and not informed by fear,” BCA head Bran Black said.
“The prospect of a union veto over workplace technology would be deeply concerning. It would hold back the investment and innovation Australia needs to lift productivity and living standards. Overstepping on regulation would risk putting us behind the rest of the world.”
Health Minister Mark Butler told Nine’s Today show that Albanese’s speech was about “making sure that everyone gets the benefits, not just a few”.
“Like every wave of technology, it means as a relatively small country at the end of the planet, [so] are we harnessing all of the opportunities with every wave of technology?” Butler said.
“I mean the last big wave of technology, that social media wave, is something where I think we’ve led the world in managing risks and particularly safety risks to young people. So we can do this, but this is a big wave of technology, perhaps bigger than any other we have seen.”
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