New Delhi: Recently Australian government is now set to convene a two-day meeting to tackle all of the challenges that AI poses to the nation’s copyright framework, the Copyright and AI Reference Group will going to meet to discuss potential significant changes, including the creation of the latest paid collective licensing framework for AI users under the Copyright Act, the government announced in an statement. The group will also explore ways to reduce the cost for creators to pursue enforcement actions against copyright infringement.
The highlighted point to focus on will be clarifying how the existing copyright law applies to works that are produced by AI systems. Ahead of the meeting, the government stated it has already ruled out a text and data mining exception to copyright law, which would have enabled the tech companies and AI developers to train their systems using the works created by local Australian creators for free, a practice that is stated to be common in some other jurisdictions.
Tech companies will not have free rein in using creative content to train their AI models. Attorney General Michelle Rowland emphasised that protecting creators remains the top priority. There are no plans to weaken copyright protections when it comes to AI. 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. This discussions aim to balance technological innovation with ensuring Australian artists, writers, and other creators are fairly paid for their work when it is used by powerful AI models.
