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Artificial Intelligence Boom Can’t Be Built on Stolen Content

The Australian Financial Review

ENRICHED

Details

Date Published
18 Sept 2026
Priority Score
2
Australian
Yes
Created
19 Sept 2026, 08:00 am

Authors (1)

Description

For too long, the road to AI riches has been paved by pirated content. Forcing big tech to account for the costs on creators is necessary.

Summary

This editorial argues that the rapid development of frontier AI models relies heavily on the unauthorized use of copyrighted material, posing significant ethical and legal challenges for the industry. The piece highlights the growing tension between Silicon Valley's data-scraping practices and the rights of content creators, specifically referencing high-profile litigation like the New York Times lawsuit against OpenAI. Ensuring fair compensation and data transparency is framed as a necessary step for the sustainable growth of AI, suggesting that current governance frameworks must evolve to address these foundational resource issues. The discussion emphasizes that economic success in AI cannot be decoupled from legal accountability and the protection of intellectual property.

Body

PolicyEconomyThe AFR ViewPrint articleSep 18, 2026 – 6.32pmIf there was ever an industry that suffered from corporate dissonance it would be big tech.The latest example is Silicon Valley’s vociferous defence of the questionable practice of scraping copyrighted material to train their artificial intelligence models. Privately, however, insiders in the tech sector find it harder to reconcile this argument. That is no more obvious than in The New York Times’ ongoing lawsuit against OpenAI and Microsoft, which accuses the tech companies of copyright infringement for using millions of news stories to train their AI systems.Loading...SaveLog in or Subscribe to save articleShareCopy linkCopiedEmailLinkedInTwitterFacebookCopy linkCopiedShare via...Gift this articleSubscribe to gift this articleGift 5 articles to anyone you choose each month when you subscribe.Subscribe nowAlready a subscriber? LoginLicense articleRead MoreThe AFR ViewOpinionAIFetching latest articles