Labor accused of throwing creatives 'under the bus' with proposal to ease copyright protections for AI giants

The Albanese government is considering giving AI companies access to Australian creatives' works by default as it pursues a compromise with US tech giants. "It would mean putting AI companies' interests over everyday Australians, giving AI companies access to all Australians' content, unless they opt out," Pocock said on Tuesday. "The burden should not fall on Australians to defend the rights they already hold over content they create and own and invest in." The proposals were contained in a document Pocock described as screenshots of government's consultation proposals, tabled in the Senate on Tuesday and titled "AI on Australian Terms". The document raises as a key issue the vast number of small individual creators of online content, for which voluntary deals with AI companies "is not realistic/possible".