WTF now?! #38 – Thursday 4–Wednesday 10 June 2026

There’s a lot of AI news this week. Anthropic and OpenAI are considering going public which could signal the start of an AI IPO race. While AI companies are looking around for cash to help them cover compute costs, different government regulatory responses to AI have found themselves under pressure. Canada’s new AI strategy is too soft and Australia is accused of chasing data centre dollars while New Zealand waits to see what other countries will do. Also, the international body representing collecting societies used their centenary General Assembly to release The Paris Commitment to human creativity.

While New Zealand hasn’t landed on a copyright and AI solution, it is has put a number of copyright reform ideas on the table. On the cards are improved exceptions for cultural institutions, a fair dealing for parody and satire and a website blocking regime, among other things. These sit alongside free trade agreement obligations to extend the local copyright term and narrow their technical protection measures (TPMs) provisions.

Also: The Paramount–Warner Bros. merge is facing more challenges. And: Apple has attributed its child safety features to Australia’s social media age ban (well, partly!), Screen Queensland has paused this year’s Brisbane International Film Festival and and a new symbols for reuse is coming.

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A short list of other things:

• AMaGA is calling for presentations for their National Conference taking place in November in Kanberri Canberra. Shoot through
• The second edition of Books without barriers: a practical guide to inclusive publishing is available to download for free. Shoot through

WTF’s been going on?

Here's WTF happened this week:

The AI IPO race has started with Anthropic and OpenAI eyeing going public

TL;DR OpenAI and Anthropic have both signaled potential future IPOs by filling confidential S-1 forms with the SEC. AI is a cash soak so the AI companies are likely looking at public offerings as a way to secure further capital despite potential stock price volatility.

On Monday ChatGPT-maker OpenAI announced it filed a draft Form S-1 with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), a common move by companies considering an initial public offering (IPO) which allows them to undergo early regulatory review confidentially. Apparently the announcement came because they expected the news to leak.

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