#OpenAI has put Australia’s AI investment and copyright law at the same negotiating table.

The company’s executives put it bluntly: if current copyright law remains unchanged, OpenAI will not build a model training center in Australia, nor the supporting renewable energy facilities.
The Australian government’s bottom line is equally clear: when AI is trained on local books, music, art, and news, creators must have control, including the right to set prices for their work. A leader of the opposition put it even more directly, calling OpenAI’s statement “extortion.”
Don’t mistake “won’t build” for “pulling out”—the OpenAI data center partnership previously announced by Australia is a separate MoU that is still moving forward, and is not the training center discussed here.
What is truly difficult to negotiate in this dispute is not where the facility will be built, but who gets to set the price of creative works.
Companies can of course decide whether to invest;
countries can also decide not to trade creators’ rights for investment commitments.
When computing power becomes a bargaining chip, who should draw the line on copyright?