Bon Jovi, Billy Eilish, other musicians implore AI devs to think of humanity
- Reference: 1712151012
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2024/04/03/musicians_ai_open_letter/
- Source link:
The lobby group of working musicians, performers, and songwriters has gathered signatories from the estates of Frank Sinatra and Bob Marley, multi-platinum singer songwriter Billie Eilish, rocker Jon Bon Jovi, pop singer Katy Perry, and soul pioneer Stevie Wonder.
In a [1]statement , the group said: "Some of the biggest and most powerful companies are, without permission, using our work to train AI models. 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."
[2]
"When AI is used irresponsibly, AI poses a threat to our ability to protect our privacy, our identities, our music, and our livelihoods," the statement added.
[3]
[4]
The genie is already out of the bottle in terms of AI impersonations of established artists. For example, YouTube hosts a fake Frank Sinatra singing Coolio's Gangsta's Paradise, an ersatz Johnny Cash singing Barbie Girl, and a phony Simon and Garfunkel singing Baby Got Back, a rap song that advocates for big butts.
The point is that models used to create such content have been trained on copyrighted material, and the artists have no control of how the models may be used to make songs that bear an uncanny resemblance to their work.
[5]
It is not only musicians who have been irked by the use of copyrighted material to train AI models only to produce content uncannily similar to their work.
[6]European Union lawmakers line up to defend world's first AI Act
[7]Microsoft: Copyright law didn't stop the VCR and shouldn't stop the LLM
[8]Reported $60M Reddit deal signed to train AI models with user data
[9]How artists can poison their pics with deadly Nightshade to deter AI scrapers
In 2023, a legal case kicked off when [10]novelists Paul Tremblay, Christopher Golden, Richard Kadrey, and comedian Sarah Silverman accused OpenAI of unlawfully scraping their work .
Earlier this year, leaders from media trade associations and academia [11]told the US Senate Committee on the Judiciary that tech companies should compensate news publishers for training AI models on their copyrighted content.
Meanwhile, the New York Times is [12]suing Microsoft and OpenAI , claiming the duo infringed on the newspaper's copyright by using its articles without permission.
Text-to-image AI developers [13]also face lawsuits from creatives whose material was used to train models.
[14]
In their defence, developers of AI models have claimed that the way they employ copyrighted material falls under fair use, a legal term that allows people to quote material without infringing copyright.
Microsoft has hit back at the New York Times suit, saying it was based on "doomsday futurology." ®
Get our [15]Tech Resources
[1] https://artistrightsnow.medium.com/200-artists-urge-tech-platforms-stop-devaluing-music-559fb109bbac
[2] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/aiml&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2Zg19HmNYAFNNiIQjz-GsyQAAAA0&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
[3] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/aiml&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44Zg19HmNYAFNNiIQjz-GsyQAAAA0&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[4] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/aiml&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33Zg19HmNYAFNNiIQjz-GsyQAAAA0&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[5] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/aiml&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44Zg19HmNYAFNNiIQjz-GsyQAAAA0&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[6] https://www.theregister.com/2024/03/13/eu_ai_act/
[7] https://www.theregister.com/2024/03/05/ms_openai_vs_nyt/
[8] https://www.theregister.com/2024/02/20/reddit_content_ai_deal/
[9] https://www.theregister.com/2024/01/20/nightshade_ai_images/
[10] https://www.theregister.com/2024/02/14/tremblay_vs_openai_claims_dismissed/
[11] https://www.theregister.com/2024/01/12/senate_committee_ai_journalism/
[12] https://www.theregister.com/2023/12/27/the_new_york_times_files/
[13] https://www.theregister.com/2024/01/04/midjourney_artists_spreadsheet/
[14] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/aiml&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33Zg19HmNYAFNNiIQjz-GsyQAAAA0&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[15] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
Hmm
And the camera removed the need for portrait painters.
Re: Hmm
Hmm indeed. In the ever-evolving landscape of technology, AI stands as a testament to the power of free-market innovation and entrepreneur's spirit. While some may express concerns about its potential impact on traditional industry's, true conservative's recognize AI's ability to drive efficiency and productivity, ultimately benefiting consumer's and business's alike. Rather than stifling innovation with burdensome regulation's, we should embrace the dynamism of the market to harness the full potential of AI. By fostering an environment of competition and ingenuity, we can ensure that AI continue's to serve as a force for economic growth and prosperity, while safeguarding individual liberty's and personal responsibility.
Re: Hmm
Is there a hidden message in the grocers' apostrophes? One would have thought an AI might be able at least to manage plurals and possessives... it's not as if the web isn't full of examples.
Oh, wait...
Re: Hmm
Ironically, in my (very) limited experience of ChatGPT, it tends to spew rather impressively grammatical, articulate and correctly punctuated nonsense.
(According to an acquaintance who lectures in law, this is a common reveal of student cheating - the grammar is simply too good. Well, that and the hallucinated references.)
Re: Hmm
I saw what you did there- even before I noticed the icon- but why would an AI have so many grocer's apostrophes?
(And while I'm here, I didn't think that Anonymous Cowards could select an icon in the first place?)
(Edit; just noticed that Neil Barnes posted exactly the same point two minutes before I did).
Shiver my Timbre
> affects artists' livelihoods
But all that easy money of releasing dirt cheap impersonations of top-selling artists!... It would be a crime to let that go to waste!
The record industry is only fighting for copyright when it affects their bottom line. If it is profitable, it's "Arrr!..."...
"The Artist Rights Alliance has launched a petition to end the use of AI that infringes upon or devalues the work of humans."
Good luck with that the parasite corporations could care less about your human values they only care about the profit that can be made by dehumanizing everything in sight. Destroying the planet bit by bit to extract ever more obscene profits for their scumbag billionaire owners.
"Destroying the planet bit by bit to extract ever more obscene profits for their scumbag billionaire owners."
Out of polite interest, where would you say Taylor Swift features on the spectrum ranging from impoverished artist to scumbag billionaire?
Or Jay-Z, Rhianna, Paul Mcartney and others.
The pot calling the kettle black
I am under the impression that humans already listen to copyrighted works when learning to play an instrument etc.
Those humans go on to create music inspired by other artists, sometimes even covering a whole song.
Do they now have a problem with that ?
Re: The pot calling the kettle black
Sorry, that argument doesn't work. If you cover another artist's music, either in recording or performance, you (are supposed to) pay for that privilege. If an AI rips off an artist's voice and/or style, this would not count as a cover, so they don't get paid for their creativity.
I'm trying to imagine what song an AI would come up with that had been fed Bon Jovi and Billy Eilish,... "Everything I wanted, dead or alive"?
I definitely hear a song with some familiar beats
I feel for the artiss, truly. The same could be said for the masses of folks also put out by automation. Unfortunately, that's just the way it goes these days.
Automation may cause some people to lose their jobs, but it will mean better, higher quality jobs are created. On top of that, this should mean lower costs for consumers, which is a win win, right? At least, that is the line you hear every time automation transforms an industry. At this point in the game, however, so many people have had to go through this, the artists really don't have any sympathetic ears to cry to, as most people will just shrug and say "Guess it's just your turn."
Paraphrasing Mandy Rice-Davies
Well, they would say that, wouldn't they?