More than 200 artists have spoken out in an open letter against the abuse of artificial intelligence (AI) in the music industry. According to the Artist Rights Alliance (ARA), the signatories of the letter published on social media include artists such as Billie Eilish, Nicki Minaj, Stevie Wonder, Miranda Lambert, Peter Frampton, Katy Perry, Smokey Robinson, J Balvin, Jon Bon Jovi and R.E.M.
AI can sabotage creativity
Some platforms and developers are using AI to sabotage creativity and undermine artists, songwriters, musicians and rights holders, the ARA letter said. The US-based alliance advocates for the rights of songwriters and musicians.
“If used irresponsibly, AI poses an enormous threat to the protection of our privacy, our identity, our music and our livelihoods,” the artists complain in the letter.
Dangerous for artists if used irresponsibly
Some of the most powerful companies used the work of musicians to train AI models without permission. This aims to replace the work of human artists with vast amounts of AI-created “sounds” and “images”. This also affects the royalties of artists. For working musicians and songwriters just trying to make ends meet, this could be disastrous.
If used responsibly, AI has enormous potential to promote human creativity. However, if used irresponsibly, it diminishes the artists’ work and threatens their fair remuneration. The signatories therefore call on AI developers, tech companies and digital music services to commit not to develop or use technology that undermines or replaces the art of musicians and songwriters.
