Leaked business lobby plan pushed for redefinition of copyright law to allow AI companies to train without paying

In one of the final weeks of parliament last year, Attorney-General Michelle Rowland said the Albanian government had “ruled out” a change to copyright law that would allow tech companies to train AI on Australian creative works such as books or articles, without permission or payment to the creator.

Undeterred, Australia’s powerful business lobby developed a new way to allow major tech companies to use such works to train their AI – bypassing the copyright system – before quietly shelving the plans.