Big tech’s national security case to gut copyright laws is a bluff, intelligence expert warns
The world’s biggest technology companies are exploiting national security concerns to pressure the Albanese government into weakening copyright protections, says a former senior intelligence official who warns the changes could leave Australia more vulnerable to cyberattacks.
OpenAI vice-president Ann O’Leary warned the company could not establish an Australian training centre under existing laws, while Anthropic executive Jeff Bleich said individually licensing content was “technically impossible”.
The comments have united Australia’s creative sector – musicians, authors and media companies – against any move by Prime Minister Anthony Albanese to loosen existing laws.
Shoebridge, a former deputy director of the Australian Signals Directorate and Defence Intelligence Organisation, argues that advanced cybersecurity depends on specialised computer code, encryption and classified intelligence, not copyrighted books, music or art.
“We’re being told AI is essential for national security. AI can break the world’s cybersecurity systems. It can solve the world’s hardest mathematical problems, but the one thing AI can’t work out how to do is how to pay humans for their content,” he said.
His report argues Australian defence and intelligence agencies can already secure access to advanced AI systems through commercial arrangements, while training American-owned models in local data centres would not give Australia ownership or control of the technology.
