Australia seeks bipartisan AI regulatory and copyright deal

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and Opposition Leader Angus Taylor are working toward a bipartisan agreement regarding artificial intelligence regulation and copyright laws. The goal is to establish a framework that compensates creative rights-holders without requiring AI firms like OpenAI and Anthropic to sign individual license agreements, which could set unwanted global precedents.

The discussions come amid warnings from Anthropic that Australian copyright laws may be hindering investment. However, the Greens and independent Senator David Pocock have raised concerns that any potential deal might fail to adequately compensate creators for the content used to train AI models.

In a separate engagement regarding AI ethics, Prime Minister Albanese met with Father Paolo Benanti, an AI ethics expert and professor at the Pontifical Gregorian University. During their discussion, Benanti emphasized the necessity of human control over AI and the importance of ensuring big tech companies remain subject to the law. He compared the need for AI regulation to basic road safety rules, noting that regulation should ensure safety without stopping technological progress.