JP

JOURNALIST: Good morning. Just a question on AI. Will your Government ensure that AI giants don’t mine copyright of the content without having to compensate artists and creators? PRIME MINISTER: I have seen some of the comments that are there. My Government's a government that supports the arts. I think across the board, AI is obviously a complex issue, it's something that is an emerging technology, something that will change the way that we live and work, and engage with each other. AI has the potential for massive productivity benefits. I saw - I'm not sure what outlet you're from - but I saw a report just last night about healthcare and AI that showed a doctor talking about how positive it has been for him, on 7.30 last night on the ABC. We need to engage in discourse about how we make sure that we maximise the benefits but minimise any of the other factors that need to be considered. We as a society will work that through. It's good there's debate about it, but copyright and intellectual property is important. JOURNALIST: Just another question on AI if that's OK? PRIME MINISTER: Sure. JOURNALIST: Jim Chalmers said Labor had no plans to water down copyright laws. The Government has said before it had no plans to do something and then has done it. Are you able to guarantee the creatives of Australia that you won't water down copyright laws? PRIME MINISTER: Jim Chalmers answered the question.

PM was asked about the AI copyright thing today.

The federal government should pause its work on mandatory guardrails for high-risk uses of social media and only introduce specific regulation of the technology as a last resort, given its potential economic benefits.

Writing is just one way to do it and it's a shame schools have taught a lot of people that writing is about the output and not the process.

Rapidly generating a lot of information-shaped content is not the same as figuring something out and then clearly communicating your thoughts to another person.

It's interesting to me that the social media ban is framed by the government as "world leading" whereas not giving many of the same companies what they want to do in AI is framed as us falling behind.

Should big tech be allowed to mine Australians’ text and data to train AI? The Productivity Commission is considering it Interim report on digital economy also mulls changes to privacy rules and copyright collections to help harness AI’s benefits

Idk why the productivity commission believes productivity can be derived by giving away other people's labour for free to companies with way too much money. www.theguardian.com/technology/2...

This is just more reflexive secrecy by the APS. Privacy for me but not for thee.

(It is unlikely this claim would succeed. The FOI Guidelines specifically speak of the disclosure of work-related travel expenses of named government employees at 6.140: www.oaic.gov.au/freedom-of-i...)

It is nice to see the ATO agree that the ability to join datasets together can breach privacy. I look forward to Qantas being fined and personal compensation awarded to every customer that was placed at risk by Qantas' poor data handling practices.

Ep 26 - Thanks for watching! - Media Watch The new tech behind the Government's social media ban has the gambling lobby rubbing their hands.

I can now claim to be "another prominent expert" according to ABC MediaWatch
www.abc.net.au/mediawatch/e...

y tho

Whenever these LLM guys say they think AGI/artificial superintelligence is in the works it's like hearing someone say that their next toaster is going to break the land speed record

This made me laugh so hard, what are they posting about “day 600. Long shift. Still no subs😩”

How will Australia’s under-16s social media ban be enforced, and which platforms will be exempt? No prescribed avenue for social media companies to check users’ ages, but options include facial estimation technology and matching photos with ID

Tried to lay out where we know things stand with the social media ban after this week. www.theguardian.com/technology/2...

The fact these "hopelessly bad" cybercriminals can succeed so often says quite a lot about both the commercial software and cybersecurity industries.

Is that term defined in the relevant legislation?

That depends on whether or not you are over the age of 16.

Yes, I've looked at it. Pretty broad and vague. I expect some expensive lawyers will be arguing about what words like "messaging" and "play online games" mean.

it's pretty clear from the response to government' inclusion of YouTube that the vast majority of people still don't even know that teen social media ban only applies to /accounts/. there is a long way to go for the public to understand the policy before December

Children’s Online Privacy Code A key feature of the Privacy and Other Legislation Amendment Act 2024 is a mandate for the OAIC to develop a Children’s Online Privacy Code

I wonder if anyone has told him about the OAIC's work on the Children's Online Privacy Code ...

Ah well, the policy is incoherent, as expected. Let's see the written Rules to see just how many beans they've shoved up their collective noses.

It has been highly publicised around the social media ages. The eSafety Commissioner has released industry codes talking about age verification requirements for people using search engines. Are Australians ready for that? That is the kind of thing we are hoping to push forward with this week in taking the time to meet with parents and making sure this is in the national spotlight so everybody is prepared. The industry codes are an ongoing project between the eSafety Commissioner and social media platforms and what we want parents to know is yes, we are in a new term and the laws were legislated in the last term but they are coming on 10 December. We want to have parents backs and make it easier for them. If it makes it easier for them we can say it now. Kids who are watching on the news tonight, these laws are coming. Your parents are telling the truth, we are banning social media. We will continue to work with the E safety Commissioner about how to make it best to do that for parents.

Kind of a dodging of the question around the fact age assurance will be applied to everyone, not just kids.

Why does the Australian government think foreign technology companies spying on Australians, including young children, is appropriate? Why are they unconcerned with our privacy?

The Prime Minister has explicitly acknowledged that big tech companies have pervasive surveillance of what children do online, and apparently this is good, actually, because they can use it to keep kids off their platforms. ?!

Specifically calling out the lobby groups that wrote your policy is an interesting choice. Now everyone else knows what they need to do to get the government to do what you want.

Starting the press conference with emotional blackmail is how we know* this socmed teen ban is extremely good policy with a solid evidence base.

10am press conference with the PM and the comms minister around the social media ban.

The great rewiring: is social media really behind an epidemic of teenage mental illness? Nature - The evidence is equivocal on whether screen time is to blame for rising levels of teen depression and anxiety — and rising hysteria could distract us from tackling the real causes.

As we talk about the cheerful insanity of Australia's Social Media Ban again this morning, here's your periodical reminder that the book it's inspired by - The Anxious Generation - is hogwash.

Not just me saying it, but this little journal you might have heard of: Nature.
www.nature.com/artic...

What is it with governments constantly trying to do mass surveillance of the populace as their default, first option?

As usual, the government tried to do too much all at once instead of starting with smaller, less-risky things like publishing aggregate data about its own activities. The attempt to include sensitive data about individual people is what got them into this mess.