Australia should protect its secrets and content by ensuring creators are compensated when their work is used to train AI models, rather than granting free access to stories, songs, and art.

Australians who create valuable content could lose potential licensing revenue if AI companies train on that content without paying for it.

Paying creators should be a baseline condition for AI operations in Australia and crucial for an equitable AI-enabled future, while using AI to bolster national cybersecurity and defense.

Opt-out models have been discussed in leaked proposals, but no final plan has been announced; lawyers are divided on legality under Australian law.

Proposals and positions are contrasted in a side-by-side format, highlighting differing priorities among OpenAI, Anthropic, the Australian government, and creators.

Anthropic proposed a narrow conditional approval for model training, indicating openness to investment or other conditions supporting Australian creators, while accepting that broad exemptions are unlikely.

Australia lacks a US-style general fair use and relies on narrower fair dealing, shaping ongoing policy debates.

Five predictions for the next six months include continued prohibition of broad exemptions, licensing-first approaches, at least one lab tying investment to copyright commitments, creator funding requirements, and continued offshore training as a policy pressure point.

Market implications remain uncertain, with potential effects on model procurement, data-centre investments, and transparency requirements for training data and creator payments.

OpenAI pitched a balanced framework allowing learning from publicly available information with opportunities for rights holders to collaborate, and linked onshore compute to legal clarity in copyright policy.

The government has ruled out a broad text-and-data-mining exemption and is exploring alternatives such as fair-dealing-like mechanisms, with ongoing consultation to ensure rights holders are paid.

Anthropic’s prospectus acknowledges licensing fees may be settled via court outcomes, underscoring the importance of fair compensation for copyright holders.