Business Council of Australia Chief Executive Bran Black calls for regulatory intervention to give Australia 'fair shot' against growth of AI amid copyright row

Sky News AU

5 days ago

The federal government should be seeking to strike a balance between the use of AI and protecting existing copyright laws through appropriate regulation, the chief executive of the Australian Business Council has told Sky News.
Bran Black was commenting on what technology firms have referred to as the tech and data mining exception, whereby data is harvested by artificial intelligence models without fair recognition and recompense for creators.
The news that this was being considered by the government, ahead of the planned Productivity Roundtable in Canberra next week, has angered the Media, Entertainment and Arts Alliance, which represents professionals in the creative sectors including journalists.
Speaking to Sky News Chief News Anchor Kieran Gilbert, Mr Black said the federal government was trying to walk a delicate line, by embracing artificial intelligence while also upholding existing copyright laws.
'Going into this round table, the key issues that are on I think everybody's lips with respect to AI really go to the type of regulatory oversight with respect to the introduction of the technology more broadly within businesses,' Mr Black said.
He suggested there may need to be an amendment to the Fair Work Act to add in a proposed regulatory framework for artificial intelligence to ensure Australia had a fair shot in the competitive race.
'(A key issue) is the extent to which it is argued there is a need for regulatory intervention in the AI space in terms of workplace relations and the Fair Work Act. And in both of those key areas our position is very clear,' he said.
'..We need to make sure that we're not rushing to legislate when we haven't found a gap in the legislation. We also need to make sure Australia can preserve its capacity to retain a competitive edge, to attract investment into the country.
'To make sure that we can be and we have every opportunity be a world leader in AI development.'
But he conceded that there were also concerns about copyrighted content and who possessed the rights to such content.
'It's an important question because it goes to, it's an importance balance that you need to strike,' he said.
'On the one hand, you want to make sure that you do preserve the rights and the interests of creators so that they can continue," Mr Black said.
'To be creative. That's one of those things that helps drive our economy and indeed our society.
'On the other hand, we see that AI has enormous potential and it's got the capacity to change the way we do business to make us more productive and to improve our living standards.'
In a statement published on Tuesday, MEAA chief executive Erin Madeley said that she was concerned by reports that the government would walk away from strengthening copyright laws on protecting the rights of creative content.
'Creative and media workers bring enormous experience, skill, and dedication to their work, entertaining and informing their audiences,' before adding that creative industries generate $60billion to the economy," she said,
'All of this is exposed to being displaced by AI if unchecked.'
'In the absence of AI-specific legislation or regulation, creative and media workers have had their work systematically scraped and stolen to train the large language models developed by the Big Tech companies that now dominate the AI industry.'
The productivity summit will begin on Monday in Parliament House.