‘Grand Theft Australia’: news chief’s warning about AI
The government must resist the “temptation” to water down copyright laws or risk losing Australian culture, a media executive has said, warning that big tech and AI companies are attempting a second “grand theft”.
As the world enters the age of artificial intelligence, News Corp Australasia chief executive Michael Miller has warned of the disruptive impact technology has had and will have on the creative industry.
“The gold rush of the tech revolution, its first ‘grand theft’, was built on the free use of other people’s quality and reliable work, and that should never have been allowed to happen,” he told the Melbourne Press Club on Wednesday.
“Those who believe we should cede our intellectual property to large language models, just as we cede it to search and social media, cannot be allowed to fool us again.”
Mr Miller said the industry was again at the dawn of the next digital medium as AI robots were “sweeping” other people’s content without paying and accepting no responsibility for their output.
“We are likely being asked to surrender our stories, our voices, our culture, our identity and ultimately our Australianness,” he said.
“If this were a video game, it would be called Grand Theft Australia.”
Australians, who are among the top users of AI tools in the world, will pay the price.
“There will be less media, fewer Australian voices and fewer Australian stories, and that is a part of our identity that will not be replicated if content is taken and fed into freely given AI tools,” Mr Miller said.
“This new era should not re-sanctify the Wild Wild Web.”
The News Corp chief has issued a call to arms for all media companies to unite and demand the federal government not make any changes to copyright laws.
He refuted the tech industry’s claims that they would not create data warehouses that would bring billions of dollars to Australia if the law was not obeyed.
“Copyright Law… provides the owner with the right to control copyrights, agree to terms, receive payment and enforce infringements, and (it) is perfectly capable of dealing with AI companies that want to negotiate,” he said.
“The government should also not be tempted to explore alternative mechanisms with similarly damaging consequences that would destroy Australia’s creative industries and silence Australian voices.”
He asked the federal government to implement the NewsMAP media assistance program, enact a news media bargaining code and implement a social license for technology companies.
“AI offers extraordinary possibilities for journalism, but it could also destroy our industry if it is allowed to bring all of our work to the masses without attribution or payment,” he said.
