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Can we force data centres to clean up their act?

May 8, 2026 · 29 min

Show notes

Book publishers including Hachette and Macmillan have filed a lawsuit in New York against Mark Zuckerberg and Meta. They're trying to stop AI companies from allegedly illegally copying millions of books and articles from piracy sites to train their models. How likely is it that the case will succeed?

Locally, there's a NSW inquiry into data centres. Can a state government actually force some of the world's most powerful companies to clean up their act?

And hard drive shortages driven by AI is making archiving the internet more expensive.

If you want to learn more about whether Australia has the energy and water to power the Australian AI data centre boom, we covered it on an earlier Download This Show episode.

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This episode was produced on the lands of the Burramattagal people.

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