Workers from across Australia's media, creative and entertainment sectors are calling on the government to introduce regulation of Artificial Intelligence, amid widespread concerns about stolen work and future job losses.
The overwhelming majority of respondents - 94% - believe technology companies, such as Meta, Open AI, and Amazon, should be forced to pay for the work they steal to train their increasingly profitable AI models.
Equally concerning to workers is the lack of disclosure by AI developers around the practice, with more than half revealing that they did not know if their work had ever been used to train AI. Of those who reported that their image, work, or voice had been used to train AI, 78% neither consented nor received any compensation.
The survey's release comes as AI is set to be a key focus of the federal Treasurer's Economic Reform Roundtable, scheduled to be held in Canberra next month.
MEAA chief executive Erin Madeley said the survey findings highlighted serious, widespread concerns across the creative and media industries about the rapid rise of AI and its impact on day-to-day work, job security and future employment prospects, as well as the impact of the loss of human-led creativity for Australia's unique culture.
"Through the work we have done as part of MEAA's Stop Creative Theft campaign, we know that Australian voices, music, and artwork have been scraped and faked, that ChatGPT is substituting the work of our journalists, and that AI-generated clone hosts have been used for radio programs - with no disclosure to audiences," Ms Madeley said.
"This amounts to the unsanctioned, unregulated, and untaxed mining of Australia's creative resources.
"Just like offshore miners are required to pay taxes and royalties to extract our natural resources, so too should the technology titans that are systematically mining the original works of our creative and media workers to train their exceedingly profitable AI models."
"Companies like Meta, which recorded $US165 billion in revenue last year, should be paying for the creative assets, works, and ideas that they are using, but that is not happening.
"That's theft - plain and simple."
The union has been campaigning to mitigate against the negative impacts of AI on the workforce, via the introduction of an AI Act and regulator and a new tax on businesses that replace human workers with AI tools.
Ms Madeley said Artificial Intelligence presented a profound change and substantial challenge for MEAA's workforce, with the survey revealing that more than 80% of workers were extremely or moderately concerned about job losses.
"While there are numerous examples of AI being adopted in newsrooms, News Corporation's current push for all journalists to do mandatory AI training is particularly alarming," she said.
"Journalists are being taught how to 'take on a persona' and write in the style of somebody else, and to also use a program called 'Story Cutter', which has been designed specifically to replace the need for human subeditors.
"Instead of enhancing productivity, these tools will reduce the opportunities for younger journalists to develop the skills necessary for engaging in public interest journalism and effectively pull up the ladder on the next generation of workers."
Ms Madeley said it wasn't just creative and media workers who were likely to be impacted by the push by companies to employ AI in a bid to improve productivity, with job losses across the economy predicted.
"With AI to be a key focus at the upcoming productivity roundtable, it is becoming increasingly clear that further government intervention will be required to ensure that productivity benefits arising from the use of AI filter down and are shared with Australian workers," Ms Madeley said.
