Scott Farquhar thinks Australia should let AI train for free on creative content. He overlooks one key point

Co-founder of Atlassian Scott Farquhar has said the benefits of large language models outweigh the issues raised by AI training its data on other people’s work for free. Photograph: Mick Tsikas/AAP

Australia should adopt US-style copyright law to allow artificial intelligence to suck up all creative content or risk harming investment in the industry in Australia, according to the Atlassian founder Scott Farquhar.

Farquhar, the Tech Council of Australia chief executive, told ABC’s 7.30 program on Tuesday: “All AI usage of mining or searching or going across data is probably illegal under Australian law and I think that hurts a lot of investment of these companies in Australia.”