Tech giants are prepared to offer media outlets and artists the chance to opt out from a contentious plan to give artificial intelligence firms free access to Australian content as a delegation of authors and musicians descends on Canberra to fight the prospect of their work being mined and mimicked.

While authors including Thomas Kenneally and Anna Funder and musicians including rapper Briggs will appear at Tuesday’s parliamentary inquiry into AI and the arts, Open AI and the Tech Council of Australia have not yet confirmed they will attend.

Debate on the proposal was sparked in August when the Productivity Commission suggested a “text and data mining” exemption from copyright restrictions as local AI players try to build an Australian industry.

Keneally told the Australian Financia

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