Australian government rules out exemption from copyright laws for AI companies

The Australian government has ruled out granting technology companies an exemption from copyright laws to train artificial intelligence (AI) models. Australia's Attorney-General Michelle Rowland said in a statement on Sunday night that any move by the government to update existing copyright laws will not include an exemption for developers to mine creative works for the purpose of training AI language learning models.

Rowland told Australian Broadcasting Corporation radio on Monday that the decision would ensure that Australian creatives are fairly remunerated for their work. Rowland said that the government's copyright and AI reference group would meet over the next two days to discuss other options for response to the legal challenges posed by AI.