# ICMP says AI trained on Kylie Minogue songs without compensation, warns Australia

Digest AI · Policy & Regulation · published 2026-10-19T00:57:46Z

Canonical: https://digestai.news/story/icmp-says-ai-trained-on-kylie-minogue-songs-without-compensation-warns

## Summary

The International Confederation of Music Publishers (ICMP) says AI models have been trained on the works of Australian artists such as Kylie Minogue and Nick Cave without any payment to rights holders. In evidence shown only to Guardian Australia, the group demonstrated that Google’s Gemini could reproduce lyrics from those artists, and cited a dataset reported by the Atlantic that contains more than 12 million songs pulled from YouTube.

ICMP managing director John Phelan warned that tech firms are "strong‑arming" Australian policymakers to weaken copyright law, saying companies are threatening to withhold investment if changes are not made. He noted that 62 countries have looked at similar legal tweaks, but none have introduced a new text‑and‑data‑mining exception for commercial AI use. The Australian parliamentary AI committee is reviewing the issue, with Labor chair Jo Briskey and Liberal deputy chair Jonathon Duniam urging a review of copyright settings that would keep creators in control and ensure payment.

## Key points

- ICMP says AI models like Google Gemini reproduced lyrics from Kylie Minogue, Nick Cave and other Australian artists.
- A dataset of over 12 million songs from YouTube was cited as being used to train AI systems.
- 62 countries have considered copyright changes, but only Australia is reportedly being pressured to loosen rules.

## Why it matters

If Australia relaxes copyright rules, AI firms could train on music without paying creators, creating a global precedent that could undermine content licensing.

## Sources

1. [Kylie Minogue songs already used to train AI as tech firms ‘strong-arm’ Australian government, music body warns](https://theguardian.com/music/2026/oct/19/australia-music-global-copywright-outlier-ai-music-body-warnsns) (The Guardian AI, 2026-10-19)

## Cite

Digest AI, "ICMP says AI trained on Kylie Minogue songs without compensation, warns Australia", 19 October 2026, https://digestai.news/story/icmp-says-ai-trained-on-kylie-minogue-songs-without-compensation-warns

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