Australia’s national broadcaster has rejected a proposal that could make it easier for artificial intelligence companies to use locally produced content for training, arguing that existing copyright rules are sufficient.
The Australian Broadcasting Corporation told a parliamentary inquiry on Tuesday, October 6, that AI companies should negotiate licences directly with copyright owners rather than gain automatic access to content unless an owner chooses to opt out.
ABC head of content and legal operations Kate Gilchrist said an opt-out system would shift the responsibility to copyright holders, who would have to search across the internet to prevent their material from being used.
The broadcaster also said it believed there was a possibility that AI companies had already scraped some of its content for model training, although it acknowledged there was no conclusive evidence proving this had happened.
The dispute comes as Australia considers changes to copyright rules amid pressure from AI companies seeking clearer access to material used to train their systems. OpenAI and Anthropic have argued for changes that would make it easier to use Australian content.
The debate highlights a growing conflict between the AI industry’s demand for large volumes of training data and the rights of publishers, broadcasters and other content creators seeking payment and control over how their work is used.
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