Sat, July 25th, 2026: Michael Balk President, Media, Entertainment & Arts Alliance (MEAA); Pay Up: Should AI companies pay for the creative work they use?
Macca and Kenny are joined live on air by Michael Balk President, Media, Entertainment & Arts Alliance (MEAA);
Pay Up: Should AI companies pay for the creative work they use?
Artificial intelligence is changing how we create, consume and discover news, music, books and art. But as AI companies train their models on enormous amounts of creative work, artists, journalists and performers are asking a simple question: if your work is being used to build billion-dollar AI products, shouldn’t you be paid? Joining us this morning is Michael Balk, President of the Media, Entertainment & Arts Alliance, to discuss the union’s Pay Up campaign.
Michael is an actor and producer best known for his work in children’s television and theatre as part of dirtgirlworld (An animated program that appeared in the 2010s and is now a touring show), but has also appeared in musicals, theatre productions and television commercials.
The Media, Entertainment & Arts Alliance (MEAA) is Australia’s union representing journalists, actors, musicians, screen workers, voice artists, photographers and other creative professionals.
Its Pay Up campaign argues that generative AI systems are being trained using enormous collections of copyrighted creative works—including journalism, books, photographs, illustrations, music, scripts and performances—without creators’ knowledge, consent or payment.
The campaign calls for governments to change the law so creators will receive an ongoing, fair payment whenever their work is used, rather than a one-off fee, under a system called Equitable Remuneration. It also calls on them to give workers a secure right to be paid when the works they create are licenced, traded or used in any way – including by AI companies.
Equitable Remuneration currently does not exist in Australia, but does in the UK and other nations.
Australian DJ and music producer Josh Fawaz used AI to generate vocals and drums for a cover of Madonna’s 1989 hit “Like a Prayer” which spent 4 weeks on top of the National Radio Airplay charts and peaked at Number 2 on the ARIA charts. After initially saying nothing, he has now been compelled to add AI credits to the track on Spotify. The AI-assisted cover is currently beating Madonna’s new single “Danceteria” on the ARIA charts.
At its national conference this week, the ALP announced it would launch a Fair AI Taskforce through its Chifley Research Centre, which proposes to give Australian workers a greater say in how the technology shapes the nation.
Microsoft signed a one-year pilot deal to access news articles from Nine Media to inform its Co-Pilot AI system, letting it use information from news stories to inform its answers – but not to give users access to the full story. Nine did not disclose the value of the deal.
Nine Entertainment will lay off 30 people from The Age and the Sydney Morning Herald due to “the extreme state of disruption” caused by AI. The company has plans to retrain and to hire people for “digital-first, reader-savvy, data-informed roles”, The Guardian reports.
According to the Reuters Institute’s Digital News Report 2026, 10% of news consumers around the world use AI chatbots to get their news. For those aged under 35, it climbs to 16%.
The post Sat, July 25th, 2026: Michael Balk President, Media, Entertainment & Arts Alliance (MEAA); Pay Up: Should AI companies pay for the creative work they use? appeared first on Saturday Magazine.