Amazon, Google and Meta are 'pillaging culture, data and creativity' according to Senate inquiry
Among the report’s 13 recommendations is the call for the introduction of standalone AI legislation and protections for creative workers. Tech companies Amazon, Google and Meta have been criticized by a Senate select committee inquiry for being especially vague over how they used Australian data to train their powerful artificial intelligence products.
Labor senator Tony Sheldon, the inquiry’s chair, was frustrated by the multinationals’ refusal to answer direct questions about their use of Australians’ private and personal information.
“Watching Amazon, Meta, and Google dodge questions during the hearings was like sitting through a cheap magic trick – plenty of hand-waving, a puff of smoke, and nothing to show for it in the end,” Sheldon said in a statement, after releasing the final report of the inquiry on Tuesday.
Concerns over Tech Companies' Behavior
He called the tech companies “pirates” that were “pillaging our culture, data, and creativity for their gain while leaving Australians empty-handed.”
The report found some general-purpose AI models – such as OpenAI’s GPT, Meta’s Llama and Google’s Gemini – should automatically default to a “high risk” category, and be subjected to mandated transparency and accountability requirements.
Call for New AI Legislation
Several key themes emerged during the inquiry and in its report. Sheldon said Australia needed “new standalone AI laws” to “rein in big tech” and that existing laws should be amended as necessary.
“They want to set their own rules, but Australians need laws that protect rights, not Silicon Valley’s bottom line,” he said.
Impact on Creative Workers
The report found that creative workers were at the most imminent risk of AI severely affecting their livelihoods. It recommended payment mechanisms be put in place to compensate creatives when AI-generated work was based on their original material. Developers of AI models needed to be transparent about the use of copyrighted works in their datasets, the report said. Any declared work should be licensed and paid for.
The Media Entertainment and Arts Alliance said the report’s call for the introduction of legislation to establish an AI Act was “clear and unambiguous”.
Political Response and Critique
The two Coalition members on the committee, senators Linda Reynolds and James McGrath, said AI posed a greater threat to Australia’s cybersecurity, national security and democratic institutions than the creative economy.
They said mechanisms needed to be put in place “without infringing on the potential opportunities that AI presents in relation to job creation and productivity growth”. They did not accept the report’s conclusion that all uses of AI by “people at work” should be automatically categorized “high-risk”.
