Australian musicians sound warning note after Nick Cave, Kylie and many more slurped into AI training tool
Australian musicians sound warning note after Nick Cave, Kylie and many more slurped into AI training tool
Australian musicians sound warning note after Nick Cave, Kylie and many more slurped into AI training tool
‘It’s all just rendered useless’, Something For Kate’s Paul Dempsey says as AI scrapes millions of songs to learn how to make music
The datasets were proof of the theft of creative work, according to music licensing organisation APRA AMCOS, which represents 128,000 members in Australasia.
“Major tech platforms have not come to the table. Not once. Instead, they have lobbied governments, circulated policy papers, and proposed solutions designed to extinguish any obligation to pay,” its chief executive, Dean Ormston said.
Two large screens hang side by side in a darkened gallery, each with the same image of Cate Blanchett at a lectern.
Australia’s intellectual property laws hold that permission should be granted and terms, such as payment, agreed on before copyright works are used, but the IT industry has pushed for text and data mining exemptions to the laws.
In August 2025, the Productivity Commission floated changes that would have legalised AI companies using content without paying creators, but the federal government ruled out the changes in October.>