Pearl Jam, R.E.M., Stevie Wonder, and the Cure’s Robert Smith are among the 200 artists who have penned their name to an open letter calling out the “predatory” use of AI, and its “assault on human creativity”.
Released on Tuesday (April 2). The Last Dinner, Billie Eilish, as well the estates of Frank Sinatra, and Bob Marley also signed it the letter, titled Stop Devaluing Music.
It was issued by the non-profit organisation, Artists Rights Alliance.
“devalue the rights of human artists”
The letter begins, “We, the undersigned members of the artist and songwriting community, call on AI developers, technology companies, platforms and digital music services, to case the use of artificial intelligence (AI) to infringe upon and devalue the rights of human artists”.
“Make no mistake: we believe that, when used responsibly, AI has enormous potential to advance human creativity and in a manner that enables the development and growth of new and exciting experiences for music fans everywhere”.
“protect our privacy”
Elsewhere, the letter also alleged that some platforms have been using AI to “sabotage creativity and undermine artists, songwriters, musicians and rights-holders”.
The letter also adds,“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”.
The also wrote, “These efforts are directly aimed at replacing the work of human artists with massive quantities of AI-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”.
“Unchecked, AI 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”.
It also added, “This assault on human creativity must be stopped. We must protect against the predatory use of AI to steal professional artists’ voices and likeness, violate creators’ rights, and destroy the music ecosystem”.
“replace the human”
In a final message, the letter also called on “all AI developers, technology companies, and platforms and digital music services to pledge that they will not develop or deploy AI 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”.
You can also check out the list of signatures here.
The use of Artificial Intelligence has certainly been the cause of major debate in recent times.
Last month, The Who’s Roger Daltrey had also said that AI had the ability to “destroy” the music industry. More on this here.
