Arabic version: سناتور يدعو إلى ضمانات للذكاء الاصطناعي لحماية الفنانين والبيئة
According to The Guardian, Liberal senator Andrew McLachlan has urged the Labor government to protect artists’ copyright and consider environmental consequences as it develops its artificial intelligence policy suite. The South Australian backbencher said creative work should not be sacrificed for global corporate profit or investment in new datacentres.
McLachlan said artists’ property rights must be respected and protected, arguing that it would be unimaginable for Australia to value machines over beauty created by artists. He said the principle of fair pay for a fair day’s work should not be forgotten in an era of social media platforms, datacentres and artificial intelligence. While describing AI as offering major opportunities, he said any trade-offs must be clearly articulated and understood.
The government is considering copyright changes alongside policies covering datacentres, online safety, energy resources and economic benefits. Prime minister Anthony Albanese has said it would be “theft” if creatives were not paid for their work. Some AI companies have opposed agreements under existing copyright laws, saying they need legal certainty before investing in Australia. Anthropic has proposed an opt-out model under which it could scrape music, books and journalism unless rights holders objected.
McLachlan also added to concerns that weakening copyright rules could raise constitutional questions about an acquisition of property by government and the requirement for property to be acquired on just terms. He said compensation would need to be considered individually for each artist and that an industry-wide arrangement could be difficult to make fair. Coalition members Ross Cadell and Michaelia Cash have also backed concerns raised by Aria over copyright scraping.
Both Labor and the Coalition support attracting AI investment and datacentres, although the opposition has warned against selling out Australian rights holders. The expected growth of datacentres is projected to increase emissions and household power costs. McLachlan said datacentres must not come at the expense of biodiversity and called for sustainable sovereign AI capability, adding: “I choose real forests over virtual ones.” Labor has announced plans for an AI safety regulator and six obligations on AI companies, with its package expected before year’s end.
