Big Tech agreement to ‘Stop Creative Theft’ a win for media and creative workers
The Media, Entertainment & Arts Alliance (MEAA) welcomes the acknowledgment by technology companies of the rights of Australia’s media and creative workforce and willingness to pay for the content they use to develop their highly profitable AI models.
MEAA chief executive Erin Madely said the union was looking forward to sitting down with the Tech Council of Australia and the ACTU to negotiate a deal for fair payment for journalists and creative workers.
“Today’s agreement by the Tech Council of Australia is a welcome but long-overdue breakthrough in MEAA’s campaign to ‘Stop Creative Theft’,” Ms Madeley said.
“It is a recognition of the labour rights of our members and their valuable contributions to Australia’s culture, our society, and our democracy.
“Media and creative workers have spoken out about the encroachment of artificial intelligence on their jobs and how their voices, music, and artwork have been scraped and faked without consent or compensation.
“Finally, the technology industry has agreed to stop the theft.”
Ms Madeley said with the technology industry now on board, the spotlight was now on government to progress legislative action to prevent AI from encroaching on workers’ interests
A delegation of MEAA staff and members from across all sections will travel to Canberra on September 1 to advance the case for an economy-wide AI Act and AI-specific regulation.
MEAA is calling for:
• Transparency – so workers know if their work has been used to train AI
• Labelling – so consumers know what is made by humans and what is made by AI
• A levy on big tech AI companies to pay for the use of Australian creative and media work
• Legislation that embeds Indigenous Cultural and Intellectual Property protocols into law
• Laws to protect workers from having AI digital replicas of themselves being generated without consent.
For more details on MEAA’s campaign, go to MEAA Stop AI Theft – MEAA
Media inquiries: Rebecca Urban – 0411 790 304
