News Corp executive warns AI firms are asking Australia to 'surrender our stories'
Michael Miller warns of the dangers of AI during a Melbourne Press Club. (AAP: James Ross)
In short:
News Corp Australasia executive chairman Michael Miller has warned of the devastating impact artificial intelligence has had and will have on the creator industry.
Mr Miller issued a call to arms for all media companies to stand together and demand the government rule out any changes to copyright laws.
What's next?
He demanded the federal government to deliver on its NewsMAP media assistance program, enact the news media bargaining code, and implement a social licence for tech companies.
The government must resist being "seduced" into watering down copyright laws concerning AI or risk losing Australia's culture, according to a News Corp executive.
News Corp Australasia executive chairman Michael Miller warned of the devastating impact artificial intelligence had already had and would have on the creator industry.
"The tech revolution's gold rush, its first 'big steal', was built on the free use of other people's quality and trusted work, and that should never have been allowed to happen," he said in his Melbourne Press Club address on Wednesday.
"Those who believe that we should give up our intellectual property to large language models in the same way we gave it up to search and social cannot be allowed to take us for fools again."
Mr Miller said the industry was again at the dawn of the next digital landscape as AI bots hoovered up other people's content without paying and accepted no responsibility for their outputs.
"We are arguably being asked to surrender our stories, our voice, our culture, our identity, and ultimately, our Australianness," he said.
"If it was a video game, it would be called Grand Theft Australia."
The price of that would be paid by Australians themselves, who are among the top users of AI tools in the world.
"There will be less media, less Australian voices, and less Australian stories, and that is part of our identity that will not be replicated should content be taken and … ingested into AI tools given freely," Mr Miller said.
"This new era must not enshrine the Wild Wild Web all over again."
Calls to rule out changes to copyright laws
The News Corp chairman issued a call to arms for all media companies to stand together and demand the federal government rule out any changes to copyright laws.
He rebutted claims from the tech industry that they would not build data sheds, bringing billions of dollars into Australia, if the laws were not surrendered.
News Corp's chairman has issued a call to arms for all media companies to stand together. (AAP: Paul Miller)
"The Copyright Act … provides the holder with the right to control, agree to terms, be paid and enforce breaches to their copyright, and [it] is perfectly able to deal with AI companies wanting to negotiate," he said.
"Government should also not be seduced into exploring alternative mechanisms that would have similar damaging outcomes that would decimate Australia's creative industries and silence Australian voices."
He demanded the federal government deliver on its NewsMAP media assistance program, enact the news media bargaining code, and implement a social licence for tech companies.
"AI does offer extraordinary possibilities to journalism, but at the same time, it could destroy our industry if it is allowed to hoover up all our work and deliver it to vast audiences with no attribution and no payment," he said.
AAP