‘It is theft, plain and simple’: Media union fronts Senate to demand action on AI training
Media, Entertainment & Arts Alliance (MEAA) members have fronted Senate to give evidence regarding what it deems “the biggest corporate swindle in history”, the use of artificial intelligence to steal the work of the media, creative, and art sectors, and devalue their professions.
Appearing at the Senate Select Committee hearing on Adopting Artificial Intelligence on Tuesday morning in Canberra, MEAA members have urged 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.
MEAA is asking the Federal Government to enacts laws to regulate the rollout of AI in the creative and media industries amid “mounting concern that the work of Australian creatives and journalists is being systematically scraped to train AI without their knowledge, consent, or compensation”.
It also wants to fix gaps in copyright and intellectual property law to better protect First Nations culture.
“Artificial Intelligence presents the most profound change in the relationship between work and production since the advent of the Internet,” MEAA chief executive Erin Madeley 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.
“For the big Silicon Valley tech companies that own these machines, their business model is built on taking others’ work and selling it as their own and what we’ve seen so far is the thin end of the wedge.
“If left unchecked, the increased use of AI tools in the media, arts, and creative industries will lead to mass job losses and the end of intellectual property as we know it.
“It will also drive the erosion of our news and information to the point where the community cannot tell fact from fiction.”
The union is also calling for updates to workplace laws to ensure workers are consulted on the intended use of AI in the workplace, as well as a tax on businesses that replace human workers with AI tools.
This latter issue may stop the stem of job losses in the Australian media sector that has seen Seven West Media, Nine Entertainment, and News Corp Australia all implement mass redundancies over the past year.
A recent survey by MEAA revealed 59% of its members are concerned about AI-related job losses. This is a minor concern, comparatively: 75% of creative professionals are concerned about theft of intellectual or creative work, 70% are concerned about the proliferation of deliberately harmful content, 66% are concerned about the loss of human-led creativity.
MEAA holds “grave concerns” that policymakers have been slow to respond to the encroachment of AI.
“We are behind the eight ball on AI and the companies profiting from other people’s work are taking advantage of that right now,” Madeley said.
“We are calling on the government to take urgent action to protect their hard work and livelihoods from AI theft.”
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