A letter signed by 200 artists including Pearl Jam, Jon Bon Jovi and R.E.M. called on AI developers to change their approach to how music is used with the technology.
The strongly-worded statement from the Artist Rights Alliance expressed concerns that the value of human creativity is being devalued by the way art is used to train language models – amounting to an “assault on human creativity.”
“Make no mistake: we believe that, when used responsibly, Al has enormous potential to advance human creativity… in a manner that enables the development and growth of new and exciting experiences for music fans everywhere,” read the letter, with cosignatories including Peter Frampton, Don Was, Elvis Costello, Stevie Wonder, Sheryl Crow and Greta Van Fleet.
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“Unfortunately, some platforms and developers are employing Al to sabotage creativity and undermine artists, songwriters, musicians and rights holders.”
The letter went on to say: “When used irresponsibly, Al poses enormous threats to our ability to protect our privacy, our identities, our music and our livelihoods.Some of the biggest and most powerful companies are, without permission, using our work to train Al models. These efforts are directly aimed at replacing the work of human artists with massive quantities of Al-created ‘sounds’ and ‘images’ that substantially dilute the royalty pools that are paid out to artists.
“For many working musicians, artists and songwriters who are just trying to make ends meet, this would be catastrophic.”
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The alliance predicted that, without a change in direction, “Al will set in motion a race to the bottom that will degrade the value of our work and prevent us from being fairly compensated for it.”
They added: “This assault on human creativity must be stopped. We must protect against the predatory use of AI to steal professional artists’ voices and likenesses, violate creators’ rights, and destroy the music ecosystem.
“We call on all AI developers, technology companies, platforms and digital music services to pledge they will not develop or deploy Al music-generation technology, content or tools that undermine or replace the human artistry of songwriters and artists or deny us fair compensation for our work.”
The Artists Rights Alliance says it defends the “rights of musicians, performers and songwriters in the digital world.” The body’s aims are to seek “a healthy music economy… control of our work … a seat at the table” and “a future for the next generation.”
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