Australian Copyright Law Impedes the Development of Artificial Intelligence: What Are the Options?

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is an emerging technology that has a huge potential in contributing to the Australian economy and addressing economic and social problems in society. However, Australian copyright laws are likely to impede the development of AI, and machine learning in particular, by requiring authorisation every time copyrighted content is used in machine learning processes. This puts Australian AI industries at a competitive disadvantage, since other AI-focused jurisdictions, such as the US, EU, UK and Japan, allow such use under copyright exceptions. After analysing the scope of copyright in relation to machine learning and licensing options, this paper examines different copyright exceptions (fair use, fair dealing and an EU-style specific TDM exception) as potential solutions for Australia.