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Jack River vs Big AI ‘Bullsh*t’: A Singer’s Crusade

The Australian

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In this episode of The Australian’s daily news podcast The Front, Holly Rankin sits down with host Claire Harvey to discuss why she’s on a mission to ensure Australia’s copyright laws aren’t amended to grant AI companies’ greatest wish.

Summary

This article highlights the advocacy of Australian musician Holly Rankin (Jack River) against proposed 'text and data mining exceptions' in Australian copyright law that would benefit frontier AI labs. Rankin's lobbying efforts underscore a critical tension between the data-hungry scaling requirements of large-scale AI models and the intellectual property rights of human creators. While primarily focused on economic and cultural impacts, the debate directly relates to the regulatory frameworks governing how frontier AI models are trained and the accountability of the corporations developing them. This case reflects a significant local movement to implement guardrails on AI development within the Australian policy landscape.

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Musician Jack River’s double life as a lobbyist bent on making AI payOn our podcast The Front: ARIA-nominated muso Jack River is also high-flying political lobbyist Holly Rankin. She’s at the vanguard of a crusade to stop politicians bending to AI’s desire for a copyright law free-for-all that would rip off artists, musicians, journalists and Australia’s creative soul.Claire HarveyHolly Rankin, known professionally as Jack River, is a regular at Parliament House holding politicians to account as AI’s billionaire CEOs seek to have copyright laws watered down. Picture: NewsWire / Martin Ollman.Gift this articleless than 2 min read4 hours ago.Updated 3 hours agoIn this episode of The Australian’s daily news podcast The Front, Holly Rankin sits down with host Claire Harvey to discuss why she’s on a mission to ensure Australia’s copyright laws aren’t amended to grant AI companies’ greatest wish.They’re asking Government for a ‘text and data mining exception’ that would allow them to scrape all creative works, including music, art, fiction and journalism, without having to pay a licence fee. Listen to The Front: Watch on YouTube: Read related topics:Artificial IntelligenceClaire HarveyEditorial DirectorClaire Harvey hosts The Australian's daily news podcast The Front and is executive producer of our suite of podcasts. She has worked as a reporter, foreign correspondent, deputy editor and columnist across 30 years in journalism.Join the conversationAdd your comment to this storyTo join the conversation, please log in. Don't have an account? RegisterJoin the conversation, you are commenting as LogoutMore related storiesDefence‘Meet common danger’: Australia, Fiji sign new defence pact in rebuff to ChinaThe agreement, which states each would act if either nation is attacked, makes Fiji Australia’s fourth alliance partner after the US, New Zealand and Papua New Guinea.Read moreNationMeta abandons ‘policing offensiveness’: RCInternal talking points from the owner of Facebook say its platforms have allowed phrases like ‘immigrants are scum’, ‘white people are all Nazis’ and ‘gay people are sinners’ without consequences for more than a year.Read more