AI Companies Trained Models on Kylie Minogue and Nick Cave Without Payment, Music Body Reveals

AI Models Trained on Copyrighted Music Without Artist Compensation

AI companies have already trained their models on songs by Australian artists including Kylie Minogue and Nick Cave without providing any compensation, according to evidence presented by the International Confederation of Music Publishers (ICMP)1

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. The ICMP, which represents Sony, Warner, Universal, and thousands of independent publishers across six continents, revealed that Google's Gemini was able to reproduce lyrics from Kylie Minogue, G-Flip, and Nick Cave1

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. Additionally, an AI training dataset reported by the Atlantic in June contained more than 12 million songs pulled from YouTube videos, including tracks from these Australian artists1

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Tech Firms Pressure Australian Government to Weaken Copyright Laws

John Phelan, the ICMP's managing director, accused AI companies of attempting to "legitimise larceny" by strong-arming Australian policymakers1

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. He stated that tech firms are threatening to withhold investment unless the Australian government relaxes its copyright protections2

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. This wholesale AI theft has sparked concern among creative industries who fear that global tech companies are lobbying behind closed doors to change Australia's copyright laws1

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Of the dozens of countries that AI companies have approached to water down their copyright protections, Australia appears to be the only one seriously considering making such changes1

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. Phelan emphasized that among 62 countries that considered legal changes, none of the other 61 introduced new text and data mining exceptions for commercial purposes or reduced exclusive rights in copyright1

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Parliamentary Committee Revisits Copyright Debate Despite Prime Minister's Earlier Stance

In July, Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese declared it would be "theft" if artists did not retain control over whether their work was used to build and train AI models1

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. However, a parliamentary committee on artificial intelligence recently revisited the issue, describing the current situation as a stalemate1

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. Government and opposition members noted that AI models were already training on copyrighted works in the United States without compensating creators, while companies building frontier AI models were withholding training in Australia due to current copyright laws1

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The inquiry's Labor chair, Jo Briskey, and deputy chair, Liberal senator Jonathon Duniam, jointly recommended the Australian government "examine current copyright settings" while ensuring creators retain control and receive payment1

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. Independent senator David Pocock raised concerns that the committee's position on copyright may have been predetermined by the prime minister after staffer edits were discovered in the letter1

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AI Companies Defend Training Practices While Global Music Industry Watches

Anthropics's special envoy, Jeffrey Bleich, told the parliamentary committee that the company wasn't trying to dictate terms but had shared information about training implications "with respect to our capacity to operate here"1

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. He argued that "you can't license the entire internet" and described training as essentially viewing and studying billions of information sources available online1

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. OpenAI's chief of economic policy, Adam Cohen, pointed to the fair use exception in US law as fundamentally protecting new technology development, while noting agreements with News Corp and the Guardian as examples of voluntary deals1

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Phelan warned that the global music industry and creative industries worldwide are "appalled by the idea of a statutory scheme or a government deal which would interfere with how Australian industries work and contract around the world"1

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. He stated that "the world is very much watching what Australia does" and suggested that panic has set in among AI companies over investment costs and the need to generate returns1

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. If Australia gives in to pressure, it would stand as the odd one out among all countries approached by tech firms, potentially setting a precedent where hits from artists like Kylie Minogue continue feeding AI training without royalty payments2

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