Meta’s Grand Theft AusLit | How to call for ethical and accountable AI
Plus my election and reading recommendations and requests (and more)
Meta’s Grand Theft AusLit
Like many others, we were dismayed to learn that mega-corporation Meta has stolen the work of thousands of Australian creators to train the Large Language Model for its flagship AI, Llama 3, without permission, license or compensation – including both editions of The Relationship is the Project.
In my longest rant to date, my latest ‘and another thing’ vlog is 17+ minutes on what Meta did wrong (and how it’s theft may impact an already-decimated sector). The full version and archive are available exclusively for my Patreon followers, but here are a few extracts…
Part 1:
Part 2:
Part 3:
Featuring The Relationship is the Project, NewSouth Publishing, Readings Books, The Atlantic, Tragic Girls Co, TechSpot, Magabala Books, Jennifer Mills on ABC Arts in 30, Australian Society of Authors (ASA), Media Entertainment and the Arts Alliance (MEAA), Books+Publishing and Agata Mrva-Montoya in The Conversation. (Please note: this vlog references legal issues but in no way constitutes legal advice.)
For more, you can join me as an advocate, ally or accomplice from just $2.50/month) - including my thoughts on AI and governance coming soon. With huge thanks to Anne for joining my Patreon team this month.
How to call for ethical and accountable AI
For those with the capacity (or rage) to put into this AI issue at the moment, here are a few things you can do…
Writers and creators can search for your work in the LibGen database.
If your work has been stolen, add your details to the Australian Society of Author’s list of affected Aussie creators so they can take that hard data to government to insist upon AI legislation that protects creators’ rights, as well as much-needed updates to our copyright regime, and ways to hold big tech companies like Meta accountable.
Anyone can sign the open letter from the Media Arts and Entertainment Alliance.
And while you don’t have to be a member of either organisation to fill out those forms, joining the ASA or MEAA (or both) is another way to help build support for campaigns like these.
You can also endorse the international statement on AI training.
And read the ASA’s group statement with the Australian Publishers Association (APA),Copyright Agency and New Zealand Society of Authors Te Puni Kaituhi o Aotearoa (PEN NZ Inc) (NZSA), and get vocal about it:
Election recs
The Meta debacle fells like the latest massive dunking in wave after wave of harm and helplessness. As always, the majority of our energy and advocacy should go towards witnessing, listening to and acting on behalf of those who need it most, to turning privilege into compassion, action and mutual aid, and using every tool at our disposal to insist upon the equal implementation of human rights and international law, including – importantly, here in Australia – our vote at next month’s Federal Election.
Experts are predicting a hung parliament, which makes the election stakes higher than ever - and makes me ever-more-grateful for the example of Julia Gillard’s incredibly successful minority government and for Australia’s preferential voting system.
So, as you start thinking about your ballot paper, I recommend you check out:
ABC’s VoteCompass survey to see how your views compare to parties and candidates.
They Vote for You to see how your MP votes on the issues that matter most to you.
How Australia’s major parties have lost ‘courage’ on Indigenous affairs in The Guardian.
An Aboriginal Woman’s personal perspective on the 2025 Federal Election by Cheryl Axleby-Keeffe on the ANTAR website.
Uluru leader says PM’s Indigenous agenda is Howard-era ‘status quo’ for ABC News.
The Climate Council’s election scorecard on how the three biggest parties measure up on climate policy.
The People’s Pledge for Palestine (via this easy form from APAN, which takes <1 minute to make a big difference and call on your reps to do the same).
The ASRC’s election scorecard on how to vote with fairness and compassion for refugees.
Kylie Maslen’s Patreon on disability justice and crip time in an election campaign ($) and People with Disabilities Australia’s 2025 Federal Election Hub to make sure your candidates back a fully funded NDIS, including a #FairGoForME.
The #SaveOurArts campaign to help protect Australian arts and culture from AI theft, promote Australian content through local content quotas and levies, fund Australian artists, and invest in arts infrastructure.
The Books Create Australia campaign to make sure your candidates back Australian books, stories and knowledge publications that connect, reflect and inform us (and which we need now, more than ever).
First Dog on the Moon’s election cartoon in The Guardian on how it’s time to (metaphorically) kick the duopoly in the nads and elect a minority government.
Why voting in a fact-checking void should worry you in Crikey, particularly given this Federal Election will be the first without ABC RMIT Fact Check since 2013.
Misleading and false election ads are legal in Australia, Yee-Fui Ng on why we need national truth in political advertising laws for The Conversation.
Get the Facts, The Greens’ responses to frequently asked questions about far-right and anti-renewable misinformation campaigns.
Reading recs and requests
I read 17 books in March (for a total of 55 books in 2025 so far), including one Blak Book, five books for BookRiot’s Read Harder Challenge and eight for The Diverse Baseline. My highlights were:
Another Day in the Colony by Chelsea Watego, powerful and personal essays about the everyday violence and racism of so-called Australia.
Oathbound by Tracy Deonn, the third cliffhanger in her magical Legendborn Cycle about supernatural incursions, racist secret societies and reclaiming destinies. Inhaled in the week after its release and I am already desperate for the next one
Pride by Ibi Zoboi, a smart, funny and poetry-filled Austen reimagining set in current-day Bushwick with an Afro-Latino protagonist. Of the 10ish Pride and Prejudice I’ve read (most in the last year), it’s gone straight to the top - aided by the audio book’s narration by another one of my favourite authors, Elizabeth Acevedo.
I’m Afraid of Men by Vivek Shraya, a brief but thoughtful and thought-provoking memoir about imposed and reimagined gender, and how hurt and fear holds us all back.
Meanwhile, the state of the world has me struggling again. I am sure that we all are. There’s so much to care about - too much, all the time, and (right now) all at once. And so much that I don’t understand.
So, while I know none of us can wrap our heads and hearts around everything, I also know I can’t let that overwhelm me into apathy. So while it’s a bit late for New Year’s resolutions, to hold myself accountable, here’s my quick list of things I want to read, hear and learn more about this year:
Dismantling racism, colonialism, whiteness and white feminism (for which my TBR currently includes Black Witness by Amy McQuire, The Feminist Killjoy Handbook by Sara Ahmed and On Identity by Stan Grant);
Police and prison abolition (for which my TBR currently includes Abolition. Feminism. Now. by Davis with Gina Dent, Erica Meiners and Beth E. Richie); and
The Land Back movement (for which I’d love any recommendations, please).
REMINDER: Museum Management webinars
My online workshop for AMaGA Victoria’s Museum Management series kicks off on Tuesday 27 May.
The two-hour session will look at rethinking governance beyond the status quo, purpose and values-led practice and planning, and meeting our duty of care to our leaders (including culture, alignment and succession).
You can book your place on the AMaGA Victoria website.
My thanks for Laps for Life
By the end of my first Laps for Life challenge in March, I had exceeded my targets, swum more than 8km, and helped raise over $1,500 for youth mental health support.
A subject too close to my broken auntie heart, more Aussie young people die by suicide each year than in car accidents or from cancer. So I am impossibly grateful to all who supported my swim and this hugely important cause.
