Anthropic pushes for opt-out model for Australian content as ABC warns of ‘cannibalisation’ of news

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Maker of Claude claims AI could transform economy but ABC and SBS say the technology should be subject to media regulations

AI giant Anthropic has urged the Albanese government to consider giving “conditional approval” for big tech to train its models on Australian copyrighted works under an opt-out model, after conceding it won’t secure a blanket copyright exemption.

But Australia’s public broadcasters, the ABC and SBS, have strongly criticised AI firms, calling on the government to enact strict new rules to compensate media organisations and protect public interest journalism.

In submissions to a federal parliamentary inquiry, the ABC demanded AI companies be subject to the same copyright, defamation and privacy rules as media outlets, warning of a “cannibalisation” of mainstream news.

The ABC and SBS also suggested the government include AI companies in the news bargaining incentive, which would require them to make commercial deals with large media outlets to support journalism.

“As publishers, AI-based services are currently unregulated and receive more favourable treatment than established Australian media. This unequal treatment will accelerate the cannibalisation of the Australian news industry,” the ABC said in its submission.

SBS said AI-powered large language models – such as ChatGPT