Under the banner of the Artists Rights Alliance, 200 artists have written an open letter to technology companies and creators, urging them not to infringe on human artistic expression by developing AI tools for music production.
What is Artist Rights Alliance?
The list of signed artists is very strong— Billie Eilish, Bob Marley Estate, Chapel Lawn, Elvis Costello, Greta Van Fleet, Imagine Dragons, Jon Bon Jovi, Jonas Brothers, Kacey Musgraves, Katy Perry, Mac – Starring DeMarco, Miranda Lambert, Mumford & Sons, and Nicki Minaj. , Noah Kahan, Pearl Jam, Sheryl Crow, Zayn Malik, and more.
“When used irresponsibly, AI poses a major threat to our ability to protect our privacy, identities, music, and lives. Some of the largest and most powerful companies are using our work to train AI models without our permission. “This would be devastating for many working musicians, artists, and songwriters just trying to make a living,” the Artist Rights Alliance said.
As it turns out, the Artist Rights Alliance isn't so wrong. AI systems that create new music, art, and literature do so by analyzing vast collections of existing works, so individual artists can opt out of having their work used in such models. That's almost impossible. Attempts to do so would be akin to artists trying to stop copyright infringement on their music, and are unlikely to succeed. Furthermore, advances in technology have made it possible to create realistic digital imitations of famous artists, and further improvements are expected in the future.
Companies like Adobe and Stability AI are developing AI music generation platforms that incorporate licensed music or royalty-free tracks. But even these innovations pose potential challenges and potentially opportunities for artists who compose music for television commercials or provide beats to other artists for licensing. may decrease.
Musicians are often at a disadvantage due to advances in technology. Initially, file sharing platforms facilitated easy access to free music. Then came streaming services, which were seen as a solution but didn't fully satisfy artists' compensation concerns. The Musicians Allied Workers Union (UMAW) has been actively advocating for increased streaming revenue for artists, noting that Spotify's average payout per stream is approximately $0.0038. This highlights why musicians are concerned about new technological developments in their industry.
Authors have also been vocal in the debate surrounding generative AI. In July, more than 15,000 authors came together to sign an open letter to leaders at OpenAI, Alphabet, Meta, Stability AI, IBM, and Microsoft.
Their letter describes how these AI technologies reproduce and recycle words, stories, styles, and concepts, and how millions of copyrighted texts (books, articles, essays, poems) are being compensated for. I criticized them for using them without any knowledge.
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But the tech industry seems to be ignoring these concerns. Platforms like ChatGPT continue to demonstrate their ability to produce content reminiscent of specific authors, such as creating text in the Margaret Atwood way, even though the quality is far from perfect. This suggests that AI could absorb and regurgitate elements of works such as “The Handmaid's Tale,'' albeit in a smaller form. Given the current state of copyright law, which has not evolved to effectively address the challenges posed by generative AI, it seems futile to seek legal redress at this time.
Artists Rights Alliance concludes the letter with the following statement:
“Such attacks on human creativity must stop. We must protect all AI developers, technology companies, platforms, and digital music services from uses that undermine or replace the human artistry of songwriters and artists. We ask you to pledge that you will not develop or deploy any AI music generation technology, content, or tools that deny fair compensation to us, or deny us fair compensation for our work.”
Featured image credit: Kerem Gülen/Midjourney
