Australian Writers’ Guild backs recommendations on AI

The Australian Writers’ Guild has welcomed the recommendations of the Select Committee on Adopting Artificial Intelligence (AI).

The report contains a damning assessment of the “widespread theft of tens of thousands of Australians’ creative works by big multinational tech companies, without authorisation or remuneration”, labelling the act as unlawful and criticising the current lack of transparency by AI developers, including Google, Amazon and Meta.

AWG and AWGACS Group CEO Claire Pullen said: “It’s gratifying to see the Committee accurately describe the contradictory and farcical arguments of big tech companies that have taken Australian work without paying for it. It shouldn’t take a senate Committee to make it clear that this is stealing.

“The AWG welcomes the Committee’s strong support of creators.”

The report, which covers the potential impacts and opportunities of the use of AI technologies across a range of Australian industries, paid specific attention to the creative industries, labelling them as “acutely and urgently at risk” of the impacts of unregulated AI.

“This is a real concern among Australian creatives,” said Pullen. “In a survey of our members quoted in the Committee’s report, 94% of respondents expressed concern for their livelihoods if AI use continues in the industry without regulation.

“Australia’s storytelling is rich and we have a unique cultural identity, all at risk if we don’t adequately address the theft that has already taken place. Until this is achieved, any discussions of the opportunities AI may present to the industry are moot.”

“This is a question that goes beyond copyright- who tells our stories, and how, and how do we make sure Australian creators have a job where they can keep telling us the yarns we love?”

Recommendations 8-10 of the report specifically address the creative industries, with the committee calling on the Australian Government to:

• continue to consult with creative workers through the Copyright and Artificial Intelligence Reference Group (CAIRG) on the theft of their work;
• require AI developers to be transparent in their use of copyrighted works, and to license and pay for any copyrighted works used to train datasets; and
• to undertake further consultation with the creative industry to ensure fair remuneration is paid to creators for any commercial AI-generated outputs.

“It’s been over a year since we first learned our members’ work had been used to train AI datasets, and since then we’ve been out front, working as part of CAIRG, talking to government and campaigning for our members’ rights. This report is a solid step towards ensuring big tech has to play by the rules,” said Pullen.

“We look forward to continuing this work with government to build a robust framework that protects the economic and intellectual property rights of Australian artists, and delivers a rich and diverse screen and stage culture for audiences.”

You can read the AWG submission here.

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MEAA:

“The committee has called out the farcical arguments of the big AI developers who claim to be acting in the public interest when in reality they are acting in their own self-interest at the expense of our vital creative and media sectors, said MEAA Chief Executive Erin Madeley.

She said the committee report paved the way for the government to introduce legislation for an AI Act.

“This report makes it clear that the best way the government can deal with the breadth and scale of the threats posed by AI is through the legislation of a comprehensive, economy-wide AI Act.”

MEAA particularly welcomes the recommendation to force AI developers to be transparent about the use of copyrighted works in their training datasets, and that the use of such works is appropriately licenced and paid for.

MEAA is also encouraged by the report’s recommendation that the government consider a mechanism to ensure fair remuneration is paid to creators for commercial AI-generated outputs based on copyrighted material used to train their systems.

Implementing these recommendations are crucial first steps in stopping AI developers from scraping and stealing the work of creative and media professionals and to ensure that these workers are properly paid for the use of their work.

“In the months since the committee began its inquiries, we have seen more and more evidence come to light which suggests that the theft and exploitation of creative work has occurred at a much larger scale than previously thought putting into question the ongoing viability of rights and protections regimes that have governed the use of creative work for more than a century,” Ms Madeley said.

“The impunity with which big AI developers have systematically scraped and stolen creative work shows us that copyright laws on their own are no longer fit for purpose to protect the rights and payments of creative and media workers.

“Critically, we have recently witnessed several million-dollar licencing deals between rightsholders and AI developers where workers have been entirely cut out. In these cases, workers received no benefit from the sale of their work and weren’t even asked for their permission.

“This practice is unacceptable: creative and media sector workers must share in any compensation arising from the sale of their work to AI companies and must always retain the right to opt-out.”

MEAA is also calling for the implementation of a system of moral rights to protect the voice, image and likeness of creative workers from being ripped off by AI.

“We are calling on Australia’s creative and media sectors to come together and be brave and bold in devising a modern system of protections for our unique cultural landscape,” said Ms Madeley.

“A failure to act now will mean handing over the future of our ability to tell our stories to the big tech companies of Silicon Valley.”