Open AI has severed its relationship with the Technology Council of Australia due to copyright limitations, asserting that its AI models “will be utilized in Australia regardless.”
Chris Lehane, the chief international affairs officer of the company behind ChatGPT, delivered a keynote address at SXSW Sydney on Friday. He discussed the geopolitics surrounding AI, the technological future in Australia, and the ongoing global discourse about employing copyrighted materials for training extensive language models.
Scott Farquhar, CEO of the Tech Council and co-founder of Atlassian, previously remarked that Australia’s copyright laws are “extremely detrimental to companies investing in Australia.”
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In August, it was disclosed that the Productivity Commission was evaluating whether tech companies should receive exemptions from copyright regulations that hinder the mining of text and data for training AI models.
However, when asked about the risk of Australia losing investment in AI development and data centers if it doesn’t relax its fair use copyright laws, Mr. Lehane responded to the audience:
“No…we’re going to Australia regardless.”
Lehane stated that countries typically adopt one of two stances regarding copyright restrictions and AI. One stance aligns with a US-style fair use copyright model, promoting the development of “frontier” (advanced, large-scale) AI; the other maintains traditional copyright positions and restricts the scope of AI.
“We plan to collaborate with both types of countries. We aim to partner with those wanting to develop substantial frontier models and robust ecosystems or those with a more limited AI range,” he expressed. “We are committed to working with them in any context.”
When questioned about Sora 2 (Open AI’s latest video generation model) being launched and monetized before addressing copyright usage, he stated that the technology benefits “everyone.”
“This is the essence of technological evolution: innovations emerge, and society adapts,” he commented. “We are a nonprofit organization, dedicated to creating AI that serves everyone, much like how people accessed libraries for knowledge generations ago.”
AI opened on Friday stopped the ability to produce a video featuring the likeness of Martin Luther King Jr. after his family’s complaints about the technology.
Lehane also mentioned that the competition between China and the United States in shaping the future of global AI is “very real” and that their values are fundamentally different.
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“We don’t see this as a battle, but rather a competition, with significant stakes involved,” he stated, adding that the U.S.-led frontier model “will be founded on democratic values,” while China’s frontier model is likely to be rooted in authoritarian principles.
“Ultimately, one of the two will emerge as the player that supports the global community,” he added.
When asked if he had confidence in the U.S. maintaining its democratic status, he responded: “As mentioned by others, democracy can be a convoluted process, but the United States has historically shown the ability to navigate this effectively.”
He also stated that the U.S. and its allies, including Australia, need to generate gigawatts of energy weekly to establish the infrastructure necessary for sustaining a “democratic lead” in AI, while Australia has the opportunity to create its own frontier AI.
He emphasized that “Australia holds a very unique position” with a vast AI user base, around 30,000 developers, abundant talent, a quickly expanding renewable energy sector, fiber optic connectivity with Asia, and its status as a Five Eyes nation.
Source: www.theguardian.com
