Can AI infringe moral rights of authors and should we do anything about it? An Australian perspective

While artificial intelligence technologies (AI), such as machine learning (ML), hold significant potential for the economy and social wellbeing, it is unclear to what extent copyright laws stimulate or impede the development of these promising technologies. The unauthorised use of copyright-protected works in the ML process and its possible implications on economic rights of authors have been previously explored, however, the implications of such use on the moral rights of authors – the rights of attribution and integrity – have not been examined. This paper, by focusing on Australia as a case study, explores whether the use of works as training data in the ML process could amount to the infringement of moral rights of authors and, if so, whether law reform in the area is needed.