Anthropic proposes conditional opt-out for AI training on Australian content

Anthropic is urging Australia to consider a conditional opt-out system for AI companies training models on copyrighted Australian material, after the government ruled out a broad text and data mining exemption. The ABC and SBS oppose giving AI firms easier access to news content, arguing they should face media rules and help fund journalism.

Anthropic proposed “do not crawl” signals, such as instructions in robots.txt files, and said it was open to supporting creators. The ABC warned that unregulated AI services could accelerate the “cannibalisation” of the news industry; both public broadcasters called for AI firms to be included in a scheme requiring commercial deals with major media outlets. A parliamentary committee is due to hear from Anthropic and OpenAI in Sydney next week.