Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has established a dedicated artificial intelligence office and pledged to protect the country's creative industries from what he described as the "wholesale theft" of copyrighted work by AI companies, positioning Australia as one of the most assertive governments on the issue of AI and intellectual property.
The new office, which will sit within the Department of Industry, Science and Resources, has been given a broad remit that includes developing AI safety standards, coordinating regulatory responses across government agencies and — most significantly — enforcing copyright protections against AI companies that use Australian creative work to train their models without permission or payment.
Albanese's language on copyright was notably stronger than that used by most other world leaders. "Australian stories, Australian music, Australian art — these are not up for grabs," he said. "They are the product of talent and hard work, and they belong to the people who created them, not to a technology company in Silicon Valley that wants to vacuum them up for free."
The policy has been warmly received by Australia's creative industries, which have been among the most vocal globally in demanding that AI companies pay for the content they use to train models. The Australian Publishers Association, the Media, Entertainment and Arts Alliance and the Australian Recording Industry Association all welcomed the announcement.
The new office will be led by a chief AI officer who will report directly to the Industry Minister. It will have an initial budget of A$280 million over four years and will be expected to produce its first regulatory proposals within six months. The office's copyright enforcement powers are expected to include the ability to issue fines and, in serious cases, to block AI services that systematically infringe Australian copyright from being offered in the country.
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