Some of Australians biggest creatives have pleaded with Labor to stand firm on pledges not to tweak copyright laws amid accusations the Albanese government is in talks with big tech to let artificial intelligence models train on Australian content.

First Nations multi-instrumentalist William Barton kicked off a press conference on Wednesday with a piece inspired from “thousands of years of ceremony around the fire”.

“So that what you’ve heard just then wasn’t artificial intelligence ... that was Aboriginal intelligence,” he said, flanked by more than 20 other artists.

Barton said “you cannot create the humane feeling from AI” that listeners of music, readers of books and watchers of films crave.

The sentiment was echoed by his fellow artists, including award-winning author Anna Funder, whose long list of works has been used to train AI models in the US.

She told reporters she stood before them “as a victim of crime”.

“My books that I’ve lived off for 30 years have all been hoovered up in many editions, in many countries, in many languages by big tech, broken down for parts and used for them to make money,” Ms Funder said.

She likened her catalogue of books to “building slowly and painstakingly a block of flats”.

“Each book is a flat and I rent it out, and the money that I get is royalties,” she said.

“These big tech bros have moved into my flats, kicked me out and are charging rent for my work.”

AI companies must get permission to use Australian creative works in model training under existing copyright laws.

But the firms argue that hurts AI-related investments, such as data centres.

Making Australia a data centre hub is a major priority for the Albanese government, and independent senator David Pocock last week claimed a whitsleblower tipped him off that Labor was considering a copyright carve-out for AI in return for capital to plough into local data centre infrastructure.

The government said it had “no plans” to tweak copyright laws.

Singer-songwriter Holly Rankin, professionally known as Jack River, said the creative collective was not asking the government for anything other than to stay true to their word and let existing copyright laws and the market work.

“We know that big tech are roaming the halls here, but we know that Australians will not support a weakening of copyright law,” she said.

“So to the government we say don’t back down. Do not sign our rights away.

“And to big tech we say ask us. Get permission. Pay us. We are here ready to do deals with you.”

She later added: “Any undermining or shift or change or weakening of copyright laws would absolutely be a betrayal.”

Selling out Australian culture

Speaking to NewsWire ahead of Wednesday’s appeal, fellow singer-songwriter Missy Higgins said Australia’s creatives were relieved late last year when Anthony Albanese publicly refused a text and data mining carve-out.

“Back then big tech and their lobbyists wanted him to sell us down the river by creating a so-called text and data mining exception,” she said.

“Such a change would have basically let AI do whatever it wanted with Australian stories and songs but thankfully the PM stood his ground.

“He publicly backed our musicians, authors and filmmakers and said no to big tech’s demands.

“I really hope he’s not about to backflip on that decision.”

The Scar singer said Australian artists “face enough challenges right now without adding weaker copyright laws to the list”.

“If these multinational AI companies want to make use of our creative work, they should simply follow Australia’s existing laws rather than demanding that the government change the rules to help big tech make even more obscene amounts of money,” Ms Higgins.

Also speaking to NewsWire, Jessica Mauboy said releasing music on her own label for the first time this year made her more aware than ever just how important control and creative choice were as an artist.

“The idea that big tech might get a free pass to train AI on my music without my consent is unimaginable,” Mauboy said.

“The Albanese government must not sell out Australian culture and take away our right to choose how our work is used.”

The push from creatives came after a new online tool revealed just how many artists had fallen victim to AI-related theft.

It revealed that the likes of Kylie Minogue, Nick Cave and SIA had hundreds of their songs scraped into AI databases without royalties being paid.