Alice Grundy
Research Manager

Artists around Australia welcomed the Federal Government’s decision to reject a data-mining exception proposed by the Productivity Commission in their interim report on artificial intelligence in Australia.

This isn’t the first time that the Productivity Commission (PC) has come for Australian artists. The PC called for an end to territorial importation restrictions – which stop foreign publishers from making cheap versions of local books and flooding the market – in 2008. Industry outcry at the time meant the recommendation was binned.

Last time, the PC suggested one option for managing copyright in the age of AI was to allow an exception for local AI companies, in order to promote local AI business. Artist after artist testified before a Senate inquiry saying that the exception was outrageous.

Musician Adam Briggs said, “We’re just saying if you want to use it, you have to pay for it… It’s like any other industry in Australia. If you want to build a building, you have to pay for the bricks and concrete and steel.”

The decision not to adopt this exception is a good first step. The next is to force the big companies exploiting Australian artists’ work to train their large language models to pay their fair share.