Earlier this week, there was an article on ABC that said that Attorney-General Michelle Rowland had rejected the proposal to amend the existing Australian copyright law, which would have created an exemption for AI companies to train their models on Australian creative works without compensating those creators.
I support the current Australian government’s decision to protect Australian creators, but how can we be sure that OpenAI and others like them haven’t already trained their models using Aussie creators’ work?
AI companies shouldn’t profit off the creativity and hard work of others without giving fair compensation to those creators. Creators rely on their creativity for their livelihood, and AI companies that allow everyone to benefit from that creativity to create content (or slop) are not just unethical but are robbing these creators by not compensating them fairly.
I hope that whoever is running the government in the future will stand by this decision. As the article suggests, the creative sector and tech industry must find a fair and reasonable way forward.
I also want to highlight something that is extremely important. What makes humans different from animals is that we are created in God’s image, and He has given us the ability to be creative. If people are going to rely on AI to generate content or slop, what will happen to that ability? I fear that many will begin to lose their ability to create unique works that have never existed before, and as a result, many will lose their capacity to imagine as well.
We create to express ourselves as individuals, not just to sell. Since each person is unique, commoditising an individual’s creativity takes away a part of that person’s humanity.
I sincerely hope more humans engage in creating original content, rather than relying on clever prompts to regurgitate other people’s words or works.