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AI companies want to water down Australia’s copyright laws. Artists are outraged, Labor is split

Anthony Albanese will deliver a landmark speech on AI this week as MPs are torn between attracting datacentre investment and protecting the rights of creatives

When Anna Funder stood before a pack of journalists at Parliament House this month, she presented herself not just as a writer but also a β€œvictim of crime”.

The Stasiland author was using the analogy to illustrate how technology companies have flagrantly β€œhoovered up” her literary works for their own profit.

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Β© Composite: Victoria Hart/AAP/Getty Images

Β© Composite: Victoria Hart/AAP/Getty Images

Β© Composite: Victoria Hart/AAP/Getty Images

β€˜It’s smoke and mirrors’: hope turns to fear in Scottish village chosen for AI datacentre

6 July 2026 at 08:00

Suspicions grow in Lanarkshire that local people have been misled on supposed benefits of the huge development

The promise was that a Scottish community would be transformed by massive investment and empowered to chase β€œthe jobs of the future”. Instead, local people in Lanarkshire fear they may have to sell their properties and lose green belt land because of the errors of a badly planned AI datacentre complex, even as those jobs and investments never arrive.

Late last year, representatives of Oakes Energy Services began to knock on doors in Newarthill, a village east of Glasgow. In letters reviewed by the Guardian, they invited residents to individual meetings. They told them about plans for a solar farm, say local people, and made offers: free solar panels, tree planting, or even cash for their properties.

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Β© Photograph: Murdo MacLeod/The Guardian

Β© Photograph: Murdo MacLeod/The Guardian

Β© Photograph: Murdo MacLeod/The Guardian

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