Australia's new AI framework
Yesterday, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese set out a new framework for approaching AI in Australia. There's a lot to dive into (including a lot of discussion about water and power usage in data centres, but of most importance to me is the pledge to protect the copyright of creatives. Namely, to have control over if, and how, creative work is used to train AI.
It's been a long-standing point of contention when it comes to any publicly-released content. Just because something is released into the world, doesn't mean it's free to be (re)used without the explicit consent of the creator. AI is the end stage of this.
I'm not explicitly against AI - I've experimented with it for my own work, with the caveat that I only trained it on my own work. I can see its uses as a way of processing large amounts of information and as a feedback system for ideas. I'm against generative AI, where large language models indiscriminately scrape up data to use, then turns around and threatens the livelihood of those who created the original content it used.
The framework is still very new, but it's a promising step forward. Here's hoping the government will now invite creative organisations to help shape policies around copyright and further strengthen protections for creative workers.
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