Australian content creators are calling on laws compelling artificial intelligence (AI) developers to declare the origin of the information on which they train the technology.
Appearing before a Federal Senate Select Committee hearing on Adopting Artificial Intelligence, Media, Entertainment & Arts Alliance members said the burgeoning use of AI would erode creative sector jobs and undermine public trust in the media.
MEAA Chief Executive Erin Madeley called for laws to regulate the rollout of AI in the creative and media industries.
Ms Madeley said the work of Australian creatives and journalists was being systematically scraped to train AI without their knowledge, consent, or compensation.
“Media, Entertainment & Arts Alliance members urge the government to introduce laws requiring disclosure of data used to train AI and enforcing the right for creators to consent to and be paid for their work being used for such purposes,” she said.
Ms Madeley said reforms and regulatory change must also stop attacks on First Nations culture and creative practice by fixing gaps in copyright and intellectual property law.
“Artificial Intelligence presents the most profound change in the relationship between work and production since the advent of the internet,” she said.
“What we’re seeing is the biggest corporate swindle in history.
“It is theft, plain and simple – theft of people’s voices, their faces, their music, their stories and art.”
Ms Madeley said if left unchecked, the increased use of AI tools in the media, arts, and creative industries would lead to mass job losses and the end of intellectual property.
“It will also drive the erosion of our news and information to the point where the community cannot tell fact from fiction.”
