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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

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

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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