More than 200 artists call for responsible use of artificial intelligence in the music industry

More than 200 artists call for responsible use of artificial intelligence in the music industry Picture 1

Artists warn of ethical and legal issues when using artificial intelligence in the music industry

According to The Guardian, a group of more than 200 famous artists and musicians (including Stevie Wonder, Miranda Lambert, Billie Eilish, Nicki Minaj, Katy Perry, Smokey Robinson,.) signed an open letter calling for protect against the use of artificial intelligence to imitate artists' appearance, voice and music.

The letter, authored by the advocacy group Artist Rights Alliance (ARA), asks that tech companies commit not to develop artificial intelligence tools that disrupt work or replace musicians and artists.

The letter acknowledges the creative capabilities of artificial intelligence, while also mentioning some of the threats this technology poses to human creativity. It is the practice of technology developers using musical works without permission to train artificial intelligence "mimics" and using artificial intelligence "sounds" to reduce royalty obligations.

The letter states: "The attack on human creativity must end. We must protect against the targeted use of artificial intelligence to steal the voices and images of artists." professional artists, violating creators' rights and destroying the music ecosystem."

Artists are not calling for a complete ban on the use of artificial intelligence in music production. However, they believe that it is necessary to consider the ethical and legal issues surrounding this technology's violation of creative copyright. Besides, according to artists, using artificial intelligence responsibly can benefit the industry.

In recent years, music producers have used artificial intelligence tools in a variety of ways. Music legend John Lennon's voice was once extracted from an old demo and used to create a "new" song by The Beatles (released in 2023) with the help of artificial intelligence.

Artist unions and advocacy organizations have sought to pressure lawmakers and tech companies to regulate the use of artificial intelligence, while movie studios are concerned about the potential reduce its production costs.

Concerns about artificial intelligence being used to write songs and scripts or produce images and videos, affecting the work of actors and entertainers, are at the center of several talks. Contract negotiations and strikes in the entertainment industry in 2023.

"Some of the largest and most powerful companies are using our products to train artificial intelligence models without permission," the letter stated.

Several representatives of deceased artists were also among the signatories of the letter. There has been a growing debate in the entertainment industry about how artists' portraits should be used after their deaths. With the help of artificial intelligence, images of deceased actors and musicians have appeared in films, video games and television in recent years, causing controversy over ethical issues. .

In March 2024, Tennessee became the first US state to enact a direct law to protect musicians from having their voices "impersonated" by artificial intelligence for commercial purposes. The law, called ELVIS, makes it illegal to copy an artist's voice without their consent. The Act makes no mention of artists' work being used as data to train AI models - a practice that has led to several lawsuits against companies like OpenAI and been mentioned mentioned in the artists' letters.

Last week, OpenAI - developer of the popular chatbot ChatGPT - revealed a new artificial intelligence tool called Voice Engine that can imitate human voices with incredible accuracy.

This tool helps with translation, reading support for children or supporting people who have lost the ability to speak. But some are skeptical that it could also fuel the creation of misinformation or make it easier to commit scams.

In response to the above concerns, OpenAI acknowledges the need for major changes as artificial intelligence-generated sounds become more widely available. Currently, the company also said there are no plans to release Voice Engine to the public.

'Any widespread deployment of synthetic voice technology must be accompanied by a voice authentication experience to verify that the original speaker clearly knows that their voice is included in the service and has an identity. list of voices that are not allowed to be imitated. Accordingly, this list detects and prevents the creation of voices that are too similar to the voices of famous personalities,' OpenAI said.

David Pac

Update 03 April 2024