As AI begins to make inroads into the music industry, potentially damaging the livelihoods of famous musicians, stars like Katy Perry, Billie Eilish and countless others have decided to collectively write an open letter.
They called on developers, companies, services and other organizations not to replace the talent and skill that people have with fast and cheap AI. They can be understood – they earn millions of dollars from their fame and do not want competition from “machines”.
Elvis Costello, Norah Jones, Nicki Minaj, Camila Cabello, Kacey Musgraves, Jon Batiste, Ja Rule, Jason Isbell, Pearl Jam, Sam Smith and hundreds of others from various musical genres signed the open letter, and according to Axios, the text is as follows:
We call on all AI developers, technology companies, platforms and digital music services to pledge that they will not develop or implement AI-powered music generation technologies, content or tools that undermine or replace the artistic creativity of songwriters and artists or deprive us of fair compensation for our work.
Additionally, Jen Jacobsen, executive director of The Artist Rights Alliance (ARA), a trade group representing artists, said they are not seeking any legislation, but are specifically calling on tech companies and AI developers to stop the “predatory use of AI to steal votes.” and images of professional artists, violation of creators’ rights and destruction of the music ecosystem.”
Assuming that AI models could be trained to copy the voices of established or emerging artists, this would lead to lower compensation, not to mention reduced royalties, which would effectively deprive them of new income (established stars, if not stupid ones, should have invested in shares, funds and other methods of “parking” income). The letter says that when used responsibly, AI can actually benefit human creativity, but argues that developers and companies are using the technology to “sabotage creativity and undermine artists, songwriters, musicians and rights holders.”
How will AI developers react to this? It is doubtful that they will stop developing their technology for the sake of the celebrity’s well-being.