Thousands of musicians, composers, actors and writers from the creative industries, including ABBA’s Björn Ulvaeus, all five members of Radiohead and The Cure’s Robert Smith, have signed a statement opposing artificial intelligence companies and development People use their work to train generative artificial intelligence systems without permission.
Signatories also include the three major record labels – Universal Music Group, Sony Music Entertainment and Warner Music Group – as well as representatives of labels, publishers and creatives from the United States, Canada, Australia, France, Germany, the United States, Canada and beyond A music trade organization with numerous members.
“The use of creative works to train generative AI without permission poses a significant and unfair threat to the livelihoods of the people behind these works and must not be allowed,” reads the single-sentence statement posted on aitrainingstatement.org.
Within hours of being published on Tuesday (October 22), the statement was signed by more than 11,500 people from the creative arts community, including actors Kevin Bacon, Sean Astin Astin and Rosario Dawson; authors James Patterson, Ian Rankin, Ann Patchett, and Kate Moss; and musical artist Billy Bragg , Max Richter and Norwegian singer-songwriter Aurora.
This global event was conceived and organized by Ed Newton-Rexis a British composer currently living in the United States who has held various senior management positions in artificial intelligence technology and music companies.
In 2010, Newton-Rex founded Jukedeck, a UK-based artificial intelligence music generation company that provides music for video, TV, radio, podcasts and games. In 2019, it was acquired by ByteDance, the parent company of TikTok.
After the acquisition, Newton-Rex, a choral composer, continued to run ByteDance’s European artificial intelligence laboratory and later became the head of audio at the technology company Stability AI. He resigned from the position last year in protest at the company’s belief that it was acceptable to use copyrighted works without permission on the grounds of “fair use” without the rights holder’s permission.
newton rex told advertising billboard Some trade groups are backing his campaign and helping gather signers, but have yet to fund the initiative.
The announcement comes amid growing concerns among creators and rights holders about how artificial intelligence developers use their works for generative training and control over how these tech companies are controlled.
Earlier this year, three major record labels filed lawsuits against artificial intelligence music companies Suno and Udio, accusing them of widespread infringement of recording copyrights on a “scale that is almost unimaginable.”
In the UK, the government will soon launch a consultation on how to regulate artificial intelligence technology, and it is understood that the government is exploring a plan to allow artificial intelligence companies to legally obtain copyrighted content from artists and rights holders, unless They “opt out.”
Creator groups say any “opt-out” solution would be extremely damaging to the music industry, and they prefer an “opt-in” solution that would allow rights holders to approve the use of their works by artificial intelligence companies.
At the same time, technology giants Google and Microsoft called on the British government to relax the country’s copyright laws for artificial intelligence companies and introduce exceptions for text and data mining of copyrighted works, including music, for commercial purposes. Such a premise was proposed by the previous Conservative government in 2022 but abandoned a year later amid intense criticism from musicians and creators.
“Copyright helps protect the value of human creativity while also driving the value of the wider music and creative industries,” said Sophie JonesThe chief strategist of the British label trade organization BPI (one of the organizations supporting Newton-Rex) said in a statement. “If the UK wants to remain a global creative powerhouse in an increasingly competitive world,” she continued, “the government must ensure it is respected and enforced.”
These sentiments were echoed by the Association of Independent Music (AIM), which also signed the statement.
“To realize the benefits of artificial intelligence for creativity, we urge policymakers not to lose sight of the need for strong copyright protections,” said AIM’s interim chief executive. Kat David in a statement on Tuesday (October 22). She added that it was “vital” that policymakers protect artists and rights holders “to ensure a healthy future for those who create, invest in and distribute music across genres and across all communities, regions and countries in the UK”
Tuesday’s announcement is just the latest blow in a battle between artificial intelligence companies and rights holders. In May this year, Sony Music issued a statement warning more than 700 artificial intelligence companies not to capture the company’s copyright data, and Warner Music also issued a similar statement in July. That same month, a bipartisan group of senators introduced a bill in the U.S. Senate called the Stop Faking Act, which would protect creators from artificial intelligence deepfakes.
