WA musos Ratsalad, Carla Geneve, Cal Kramer welcome Anthony Albanese’s pledge to protect creative copyright

WA musicians have welcomed Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s pledge to ensure creatives will maintain control over their work amid the rapid rise of artificial intelligence.

Musos say they are consistently having their songs stolen by artificial intelligence, which is then fed into the training of large language models — which assists the growth of manufactured tunes or lyrics.

Geraldton punk band Ratsalad — made up of married couple Ken and Jaz McCartney, pictured — believe they’ve had 20 of their hits pinched by AI and that the urgent intervention was needed.

“For the Prime Minister to come out and say that it is stealing and it’s ‘theft’, I mean, that’s in line with how we’re feeling about it. So that’s given us a bit of confidence around that the government might start to take this more seriously,” Mr McCartney said.

“To take our music and use it to train models for overseas tech giants is exploiting Australian artists and the work I’ve done for decades.”

Ms McCartney said stolen content should be removed from models and artists should be compensated for their work.

“The one thing that makes us feel a bit more secure is that, obviously, AI can’t put on live performances.

“So as long as people are supporting bands by going to their shows, I think we’ll still have a thriving scene of musicians.”

Perth-based singer Carla Geneve said it was reassuring that the government will aim to introduce laws enforcing national standards for AI data centres standards to parliament early next year.

“It’s great that they’re actually doing something about it,” she said ahead of her Fremantle show on Thursday night.

“(Copyright theft) has happened to pretty much everyone that I know that’s a writer.

“I can type into ChatGPT or Gemini or whatever you use. Write a Carla Geneve song, and it takes all my lyrics and puts them in a blender and gives it back to me.

“I think it’s fantastic that they’re actually making an action because historically musicians are pretty underrepresented with legislation to protect their work and protect their income.”

Geneve said AI companies taking writers’ work without permission was “concerning” because it’s “completely non-consensual use of my intellectual property”.

“My concern is that people aren’t gonna know when they’re listening to AI music, which they kind of already don’t.”

While Mr Albanese wants creatives to have control over the price of deals with AI companies, Geneve said she still most likely wouldn’t sign a deal.

“If I had the choice, probably not, because if they own the rights to my voice and they own the rights to everything that I’ve done, then what’s to say that they can’t make 1000 songs by me, and like the songs that I make will just completely be drowned out. So it’d be essentially like making a copy of me that I can’t control.”

The Southern River Band frontman Cal Kramer was also “very appreciative” that the government is tackling the issue head on.

He said he didn’t have any concern but “every concern” about unregulated AI use in the music industry.

“Hopefully the lawmakers continue to acknowledge that it is theft and evolve the laws as the technology evolves,” he said.

The move was also welcomed West Australian Music boss Owen Whittle who said technology was eroding the industry and wiping the value of musicians work.

With Al already stealing work in the past few years, Mr Whittle questioned whether the government would either force removals from platforms and training models or if there would be compensation.

“What happens to work which has already been stolen? Will tech oligarchs be forced to remove it or will there be penalties and compensation?” he said.

ARIA chief executive Annabelle Herd also welcomed the Prime Minister’s commitment to Australian creators.

“The Prime Minister could not have been clearer: Australian writers and musicians keep ownership and control of their work. Artists control what that work is worth, not the Government and not a technology company,” she said.

“Control of price, value and terms of use are what underpin a commercial licensing market. The artist decides what their work is worth and who may use it. That is how licensing works everywhere else in the world and it is how it should work here. In the Prime Minister’s words: anything less is theft.

“This is clear message to AI companies: now is the time to get on with licensing. Right now deals are being signed across music, journalism and publishing around the world. Australia’s creative industries are ready do business.”