Music publishers say AI already trained on Kylie Minogue and Nick Cave songs

The International Confederation of Music Publishers (ICMP), which represents Sony, Warner and Universal as well as thousands of independent publishers across six continents, says AI systems have already been trained on works by Australian artists, including Kylie Minogue and Nick Cave, without compensation. It is warning the Australian government that technology companies are pushing to loosen copyright rules so they can train AI models.

Pressure on lawmakers

ICMP managing director John Phelan told Guardian Australia that AI companies were asking policymakers to "legitimise larceny" and were threatening to withhold investment otherwise. By his account, of 62 countries that have considered legal changes, Australia appears to be the only one seriously weighing them. None of the other 61, he said, has introduced a new text and data mining exception for commercial purposes.

In July, Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said it would be "theft" if artists could not control whether their work was used to train AI, and what they were paid for it.

Evidence and the parliamentary committee

ICMP gave Guardian Australia evidence that Google's Gemini AI model was able to reproduce lyrics by Kylie Minogue, G-Flip and Nick Cave. Phelan also pointed to a training dataset reported by The Atlantic in June, said to contain more than 12 million songs taken from YouTube videos, including tracks by Minogue, Cave and Hilltop Hoods. Google was approached for comment.

The chair and deputy chair of the Australian parliament's AI committee, Labor's Jo Briskey and Liberal senator Jonathon Duniam, wrote jointly to the prime minister recommending the government examine current copyright settings while ensuring creators keep control and are paid. Independent senator David Pocock raised concerns that the committee's position had been predetermined by the prime minister, citing staffer edits seen in the letter; Briskey rejected the claim.

Anthropic's special envoy Jeffrey Bleich told the committee the company was not trying to dictate terms, but that under existing law training could be found illegal without a licence from every rights holder. OpenAI's chief of economic policy Adam Cohen said the US fair use exception fundamentally protects the development of new technology.