More than 200 music artists including stars like Nicki Minaj, Katy Perry, Billie Eilish, Stevie Wonder, J Balvin and Jon Bon Jovi have signed an open letter warning against the “predatory use of AI” in the music industry.
On Monday, the group of artists released the letter acknowledging AI’s “enormous potential to advance human creativity” but also warning that powerful companies could use their original work to train artificial intelligence models and eventually replace human musicians altogether.
“We must protect against the predatory use of AI to steal professional artists’ voices and likenesses, violate creators’ rights, and destroy the music ecosystem,” the letter states.
It further calls on tech companies, AI developers and digital music services to pledge that they won’t develop or use AI-powered technology that undermines songwriters and artists or prevents them from earning fair compensation for their art.
Why artists are concerned about AI
While the letter certainly makes a statement, things get a bit complicated when it comes to getting companies to comply, says Michael Huppe, president and CEO of SoundExchange, a music tech organization that collects and distributes digital performance royalties. Huppe is also a music law professor at Georgetown University.
Streaming platforms and tech companies “can’t turn a blind eye to these types of concerns from the creative community,” he tells CNBC Make It. “But, unfortunately, if they feel they can do something without getting the proper licenses or without proper authorization, some of them will do it and some won’t.”
In a March 29 blog post, OpenAI, the creator of ChatGPT, revealed development of a new AI tool that is able to generate a realistic clone of someone’s voice from a 15-second audio clip. The company noted the risks voice cloning technology presents and says the tool has not been released to the public at this time.
“We believe that any broad deployment of synthetic voice technology should be accompanied…
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