Grayndler creatives push back on AI copyright plan, Guardian reports

Creative workers in Anthony Albanese's inner west Sydney electorate are pushing back against a federal proposal that would let AI companies use material Australians post online, according to The Guardian Technology. The seat of Grayndler holds over 3,000 cultural and creative businesses, and one in ten of its workers earns a living in those fields, against 4.2% across the country.

Albanese has held the seat comfortably for thirty years and has often praised its concentration of live music venues, theatres and studio spaces. Labor is weighing the copyright shift as part of wider AI reforms covering datacentres, energy and the economy. The prime minister has said he wants the strongest protection available and described unpaid use of creative work as theft.

Creative groups remain uneasy because AI firms have asked for weaker copyright rules so they can train models on Australian material. Some companies argue that striking licensing deals under current law would be too hard. Anthropic has floated an opt-out system, under which it could take content unless a rights holder objected. Coalition senators and the recording industry have warned that this could amount to the government acquiring property.

Draft laws are due before the end of the year, with parliament expected to consider them in 2027.

Pete Strong, a screenprinter and Greens councillor for Bayside, runs a business based in Grayndler and is known locally for solar-powered wheelie bin sound systems. He said AI might benefit humanity but has become an extraction industry mining profit for the few. He described the sector as a gold rush and a wild west, adding that life is already hard for struggling artists without their output being taken and used in harmful ways. Strong, who curated a show called overthrow the algorithm this year and has criticised a proposed datacentre at Cooks Cove, said he has already seen a backlash against the government that began with the datacentre fight.

Designer and artist Lu Campbell-Smith, who works in the inner west, finds AI useful in her practice but called an opt-out arrangement outrageous. She said the plan shows Australia being treated as a test market and a resource to be exploited, and asked why anyone would keep posting work online if it only feeds an AI machine.

At the next federal election Albanese will face Hannah Ferguson, 28, the co-founder of a campaign group.