Everything Australians put online could be scraped for AI under proposed new rules. How will you be affected?
News Source
•Wed, 16 Sep 2026 15:00:23 GMT
📰 What Happened
The Albanese government is thinking about rules that would let AI companies take nearly everything Australians post online. The plan is called an ‘opt-out model’. Your photos, posts and websites would be fair game unless you say no.
Right now a company must ask permission to use your content. The new plan flips that. AI firms could scrape material as long as they sign big deals with groups that speak for authors and musicians.
Anyone who wanted to stop it would have to lock their content behind a password or paywall. On social media, the platform would decide, not you.
🔍 The Backstory
The ideas came from a leaked government document tabled in the Senate. Big US tech firms have pushed for the change. OpenAI told ministers that Australia's copyright laws were stopping it training models here.
Other countries have gone the other way. Britain rejected similar reforms after artists including Elton John and Paul McCartney campaigned against them.
In the US, Anthropic is fighting a multibillion-dollar lawsuit over songs and books used without permission. It paid US$1.5bn to settle a case over 482,000 books from a pirated database.
🎯 Why It Matters
Your family photos and posts could train AI tools without you being asked or paid. You would have to opt out yourself, using a system no one has shown works yet.
The Albanese government is thinking about rules that would let AI companies take nearly everything Australians post online. The plan is called an ‘opt-out model’. Your photos, posts and websites would be fair game unless you say no.
Right now a company must ask permission to use your content. The new plan flips that. AI firms could scrape material as long as they sign big deals with groups that speak for authors and musicians.
Anyone who wanted to stop it would have to lock their content behind a password or paywall. On social media, the platform would decide, not you.
The ideas came from a leaked government document tabled in the Senate. Big US tech firms have pushed for the change. OpenAI told ministers that Australia's copyright laws were stopping it training models here.
Other countries have gone the other way. Britain rejected similar reforms after artists including Elton John and Paul McCartney campaigned against them.
In the US, Anthropic is fighting a multibillion-dollar lawsuit over songs and books used without permission. It paid US$1.5bn to settle a case over 482,000 books from a pirated database.
Your family photos and posts could train AI tools without you being asked or paid. You would have to opt out yourself, using a system no one has shown works yet.