The music artists have stood up.
Much like the authors did over the summer, songwriters and musicians have penned an open letter to the tech industry — let’s pump the brakes on music generation with AI.
And like the authors, the musicians are afraid of two things:
- Losing revenue
- AI will generate music that sounds like them or is as good as or better than they are (which, for many, but not all, is just a form of the first thing)
“When used irresponsibly, AI 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 AI models. … For many working musicians, artists and songwriters who are just trying to make ends meet, this would be catastrophic.”
“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.”
As with the authors and anybody whose job sits in AI’s crosshairs, I agree with part of their argument.
The copyright and “likeness” argument is very interesting. Let’s face it: Humans do this all the time, not just with the arts but also with science. We always use those who came before us as inspiration and sometimes quite directly to move the state of the art forward. Art and science are additive.
Why is AI different than humans in this regard? Is it scale? Is it that AI has illegally ingested the content?
I’m interested to see how it turns out. I agree that protection for the creators must exist. Basically, I trust the legal process.
The fear of “AI might do our job better than us” is, in my opinion, a non-argument.
Drum machines and GarageBand didn’t put drummers out of business. Synthesizers haven’t put orchestras and horn sections out of business. Pre-recorded loops haven’t put touring musicians out of business.
AI is a brand new toolbox full of new toys. The true creators will find innovative and interesting ways to incorporate the new AI toolbox into their art.
They always have. They always will.
