Inside the battle to make AI giants pay for content
Those on the front line of the AI copyright wars sense the tide is turning in favour of payment by big tech for the content that is training bots.
Josephine Johnston, CEO of the Copyright Agency, says the AI supply chain “will disintegrate if there isn’t fair remuneration to creators”. Sitthixay Ditthavong
Josephine Johnston is leading Australia’s creative industries into a war they seem dangerously outgunned to fight. As CEO of the Copyright Agency, she is tasked with ensuring writers, artists and journalists are paid when their work is used. This used to mean chasing publishers over photocopies, but today it means confronting US technology giants over industrial-scale data theft.
The generative AI copyright wars are raging, and both sides need to find their way to an unlikely, but workable, truce.
Paul SmithTechnology editorPaul Smith edits the technology coverage and has been a leading writer on the sector for 20 years. He covers big tech, business use of tech, the fast-growing Australian tech industry and start-ups, telecommunications and national innovation policy. Connect with Paul on Twitter. Email Paul at psmith@afr.com
