Government must resist the demands of Big Tech on AI and support Australian workers and interests

The Media, Entertainment and Arts Alliance is urging the federal government to continue to pursue comprehensive economy-wide laws to regulate the unfettered rollout of artificial intelligence, which poses an existential threat to Australia’s media and creative industries.

MEAA is both disappointed and concerned by media reports suggesting Labor is considering veering away from new laws that would help mitigate AI’s potential downsides.

The union for media and creative workers has today written to Labor Senator Michelle Ananda-Rajah, a vocal supporter of AI who has reportedly been lobbying colleagues to embrace the new technology, urging the politician to consider the economic and social impacts of unregulated AI.

“Creative and media workers bring enormous experience, skill, and dedication to their work, entertaining and informing their audiences,” said MEAA chief executive Erin Madeley.

“Their work is the essential lifeblood of our culture, our society, and our democracy.

“Australia’s creative industries contribute more than $60 billion to our economy and employ more than 280,000 people.

“All of this is exposed to being displaced by AI if unchecked.”

Representatives of the union have been meeting with MPs in Canberra ahead of the upcoming productivity roundtable to provide support for the introduction of an economy-wide AI Act and regulator to ensure consent, compensation, and control over work that could be used to train AI.

“In the absence of AI-specific legislation or regulation, creative and media workers have had their work systematically scraped and stolen to train the large language models developed by the Big Tech companies that now dominate the AI industry,” Ms Madeley said.

“That’s theft, plain and simple, and to suggest otherwise is extremely disingenuous.

“Further, there is no requirement for AI content to be labelled as such, meaning Australian creators have no way of knowing whether their work has been stolen, and Australian consumers have no way of differentiating what is real from what is an AI fake.

“MEAA urges the Albanese Government to hold firm to its commitment to introduce stronger regulation of AI and reject the calls from vested interests to pause or take a light-touch approach.

“Safeguards around transparency, labelling, and the attribution of liability are urgently needed to contain the potential harms of this technology and also stop the transfer of the nation’s creative assets to foreign big tech companies, with no chance of compensation.”

Media Contact: Rebecca Urban 0411 790 304