2024-04-02 16:33:00
The movement of revolt once morest artificial intelligence is intensifying. After the Hollywood strikes a few months ago, it is the turn of the music industry to collectively voice its discontent. More than 200 artists signed an open letter this Tuesday addressed to technology companies, developers and streaming platforms. The signatories call on them to commit “not to develop or deploy AI music generation technology, content or tools that undermine or replace songwriters and artists, and deprive them of fair compensation”. American media Axios underlines that this is one of the strongest positions taken by the music industry once morest generative artificial intelligence.
Among the signatories, we find: Katy Perry, Elvis Costello, Billie Eilish, Norah Jones, Nicki Minaj, Ja Rule, Jason Isbell, and even Pearl Jam… Almost all musical genres are represented. All are members of the Artist Rights Alliance, an organization that defends the rights of artists “in the digital age”.
“Sabotage creativity and undermine the work of artists”
They recognize that artificial intelligence, if used intelligently, can benefit creativity. “Unfortunately some AI platforms and developers are using the technology to sabotage creativity and undermine the work of artists, songwriters, musicians and rights holders, they write. When used irresponsibly, AI poses a significant threat to our privacy, our identities, our music and our income.” The artists directly point the finger at companies using, without their consent, their voices and music to drive new models. These efforts are intended to replace the work of artists, they write.
The letter comes days following OpenAI, the creator of ChatGPT and one of the industry leaders, announced a tool that can clone a voice in seconds. This one is not yet on the market. But equivalents already exist, including tools from Eleven Labs, Replica Studio or Papercup.
In recent months, several artists including The Weeknd, Drake, Ariana Grande and Jay Z have, in fact, been victims of musical deepfakes, pieces created by AI using their voices and musical style without their consent.
These cases have already pushed the state of Tennessee to adopt a law a few days ago governing the use of generative AI in the music industry. Dubbed the Elvis Act, it updates the state’s personal rights law to include protecting the voices of songwriters, performers and music industry professionals from misuse of AI.
But in the case of the letter signed by the 200 artists, it has no legislative objective, explains Jen Jacobsen, executive director of the Artist Rights Alliance. “We call on our technological and digital partners to work with us to make this market a responsible place, to preserve the quality of music and not replace artists”.
A standoff between artists, studios and AI companies that has lasted for months
This is not the first protest movement once morest artificial intelligence in the world. The fear of seeing one’s work taken up to create synthetic content was already one of the points raised by actors and screenwriters during the strike movement in Hollywood a few months ago.
At the end of this strike, the Screen Actors Guild (SAG-AFTRA) obtained an agreement ruling in particular on the use of technology. This guarantees artists consent and fair remuneration in the event of deployment of artificial intelligence, without preventing its use. Moreover, a few days ago, Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, was in the middle of a seduction operation with Hollywood giants to sell the merits of Sora, his video-creating AI.
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