OpenAI has reportedly said Australia’s copyright laws are a stumbling block to potential AI infrastructure investment in the country.
As reported in The Australian, Ann O’Leary, the ChatGPT maker’s senior vice president and chief legal officer maker warned the Federal Government that it would not progress discussions around potential AI training data centres unless copyright laws are changed.
The company is interested in establishing data centres in Australia that could be used to train its AI models, with the country’s access to renewable energy making it an attractive proposition.
The Australian reported that OpenAI is seeking a more permissive approach to the use of copyrighted material within its AI training.
“No other place in the world has done [AI training] this yet, and so the question is: is Australia going to be the first? And that’s really a copyright question more than a renewable energy question,” O’Leary told the News Corp-owned masthead.
“Our company isn’t ready to have that conversation if we can’t get through the gating problem of the copyright barriers.”
In a statement to B&T, an OpenAI spokesperson clarified the O’Leary’s comments.
“Australia has enormous potential to benefit from AI, and we want to work for and with Australia to help realise Australia’s AI ambitions,” the spokesperson said.
“This is truly a once-in-a-generation opportunity for Australia’s economy and it’s crucial the country gets this right. We do not currently train our models in Australia, in line with Australia’s current copyright laws. We are committed to engaging constructively throughout this process with the government, creators and industry on an approach that is practical, sustainable and right for Australia.”
The discussions have also raised questions about what Australia wants its role in the global AI industry to look like, as it weighs the infrastructure, investment and energy demands that come with becoming a more significant player in the sector.
Australian business Maincode has developed a large language model called Matilda. It has trained its own models from its Melbourne HQ. It bills its AI as “not only capable, but locally grounded” and “shaped by Australian expectations around safety, privacy, clarity, accountability, and voice”.
O’Leary addressed the broader question of Australia’s role in AI at the Australian Strategic Policy Institute’s AI Masterclass summit, where she stressed that the company was already engaged with the Government.
“We are regularly in conversation with the government. We are rolling up our sleeves, and we are very interested in what this might look like in Australia,” O’Leary said.
“I don’t have to tell any of you how important Australia is from a geopolitical standpoint and in terms of the dynamics happening in the world… But we very much recognise that having a diversification of where we train is going to be important as we move forward.”
O’Leary said any discussion around AI infrastructure also would consider what Australia wanted to achieve from the technology, rather than positioning the country as a training ground for global models.
“We also think it’s important to ask: what does Australia want?” she said.
The question of copyright was also addressed. O’Leary acknowledged the importance of protecting the creators whose work contributes to the pool of human knowledge used by AI.
“Keeping that at the centre: what do you want for your nation? What do you want to contribute to global knowledge?” she said.
“How do you make sure that not only do we respect creators who have already contributed so much to humanity, but that those creators can keep contributing to humanity?”
O’Leary added that OpenAI had an interest in ensuring the creative industries remained economically viable.
“The last thing that a company built on human knowledge wants is for human knowledge to stop, and for people not to have the creative ability and economic means to be creative,” she said.
O’Leary’s comments arrive as the Federal Government weighs how Australia can attract major AI investment while maintaining protections for copyright holders.
The conversation is likely to intensify as the Australian government decides exactly what it is willing to trade for a bigger slice of the ‘AI boom’.
