Anthropic has signed its first long-term lease in the nation with the largest data centre project in Australia to run its popular Claude AI model.
Singapore-based developer Zerra DC has forked out about $30 billion to build the data centre based more than 200km west of Brisbane.
The deal comes against the backdrop of an emerging debate between developers and the federal government over copyright laws possibly blocking future AI investment.
Creatives such as musician Micah Heathwood face significant headwinds across the sector without the capacity to take on the big tech companies.
Heathwood is a member of Canberra-based band dogworld, which had a few of its songs scraped to train an AI model.
"It being taken with no consent, obviously is just like not news you want to receive," he told AAP.
"At least with Australian copyright law, if it gets used for anything else, kind of ever, it has to be noted down."
Comments from an OpenAI executive published on Tuesday warned the company could not invest in training centres in Australia under copyright settings.
Unlike data centres which facilitate AI programs such as ChatGPT, training centres are used to develop the AI models by scraping content often without the consent or knowledge of creators.
Australian Society of Authors chair Jennifer Mills said writers were among the lowest-paid creative workers in the nation and wanted copyright to be respected.
"We earn on average $18,000 a year from our work," she told AAP.
"Albanese promised 'the strongest possible protection' for Australian creators, so that's what we are looking for, and we're not there yet."
The prime minister pushed back on calls to water down copyright laws to benefit AI firms during a major speech in July, when he announced a national framework for the rapidly expanding technology.
But a leaked attorney-general document tabled in the Senate on Tuesday showed Labor was considering giving rights holders the choice to opt-out control to stop their content being used to train AI but lose out on income.
Greens senator Sarah Hanson-Young has slammed the government for considering changes to copyright laws, labelling the proposed opt-out a "cop out".
"It is the big tech companies who should be asking Australians whether they consent and want payment for their works," she told reporters.
Australia's recent world-leading tech reform in social media spaces has made it a prime target for companies to lobby for relaxed copyright laws, says AI expert Tony Walsh from the University of NSW.
"We're quite a cheap place to lobby for change," he told AAP.
"Not because they're particularly going to put much time or effort or money into training models here, but because it will set a very important precedent, as our laws have in the digital space elsewhere."
Professor Walsh said data centre investments had given the companies leverage to get favourable outcomes on copyright law.
Liberal frontbencher James Paterson has warned Australia must move fast on regulation or risk the national security benefits of hosting training centres.
But Prof Walsh said there was "absolutely no benefit" to national security by allowing an overseas company to train their models in Australia.
Copyright Agency chief Josephine Johnston said the increasing pressure from the likes of OpenAI reinforced the need for the government to stand strong against "unreasonable demands".
"Tech needs creative output every bit as much as it needs a favourable environment for training," she told AAP.
"It can't seek to turn Australia into the 'data laundering' centre of the world by demanding that the government waters down our protections for creators."
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