More than 200 artists signed a letter defending the responsible use of technologies; Billie Eilish, Stevie Wonder and Katy Perry also supported the initiative
The debate about the use of artificial intelligence in music continues. The tools can be used to perfectly emulate the voices of great artists in songs they never recorded, compose entire albums from a simple algorithm execution or other more technical forms of exploration, such as “cleaning” records with noise or something like that. .
Several great pop and rock artists joined the discussion. And their opinion is not at all friendly.
An open letter published by NGO Artists Rights Alliance asks technology companies and professionals in the field to stop using AI in ways considered “irresponsible”, devaluing copyrights. More than 200 artists are listed as signatories, such as Pearl Jam, Jon Bon Jovi, Billie Eilish, Stevie Wonder, Katy Perry, Jason Isbell, Nicki Minaj and Elvis Costello. Representatives of the work of Frank Sinatra and Bob Marley also supported the initiative
An excerpt from the text says that the authors believe there is “enormous potential in artificial intelligence to advance human creativity and enable the development of new and exciting experiences for music fans”. However, this would only be achieved with the “responsible” use of technology.
“Unfortunately, some platforms and developers are using AI to sabotage creativity and undermine artists, songwriters, musicians and copyright holders.”
A NGO, supported by artists, states that “when used irresponsibly, artificial intelligence poses enormous threats to our ability to protect our privacy, identities, music and livelihoods.” And he adds:
“Without permission, some of the largest and most powerful companies use our work to train AI models. These efforts are directly aimed at replacing the work of human artists with massive amounts of AI-created ‘sounds’ and ‘images’, which substantially dilute the royalties paid to artists. For many musicians, artists and songwriters who are just trying to survive, this would be catastrophic.”
Finally, the letter asks that “this attack on human creativity must be stopped”. Then complete:
“We must protect ourselves against the predatory use of AI to steal the voices and images of professional artists, violate the rights of creators, and destroy the music ecosystem. We call on all AI developers, technology companies, digital music platforms and services to commit not to develop or deploy technology, content or music generation tools that undermine or replace the human art of songwriters and artists or deny us fair compensation for our work.”
In a statement published alongside the letter, the executive director of Artists Rights Alliance, Jen Jacobsenstated:
“Professional musicians already struggle to pay the bills in the streaming environment, and now they have to worry about competing against an avalanche of AI-generated noise. The unethical use of artificial intelligence generation to replace human artists will devalue the entire music ecosystem – for artists and fans alike.”
Opinions on music
One of the biggest names in music to spare no criticism of the use of artificial intelligence in this area is Ed Sheeran. In an interview with Audacity (via American Songwriter), the owner of hits like “Thinking Out Loud” and “Shape of You” used fiction to say that people should be aware of the possible problems caused by the indiscriminate use of technology.
“What I don’t understand about artificial intelligence is that for the last 60 years, Hollywood movies have been saying, ‘Don’t do it.’ And now everyone is doing it. And I’m like, ‘Haven’t you seen the movies where they kill us all?’ Also, I just don’t know why you need this – if you’re taking a human being’s job, I think it’s probably a bad thing. The whole point of society is that we all do jobs. If everything is done by robots, everyone will be out of work.”
In an interview with Kerrang! Radio (via Blabbermouth), the vocalist of Slipknot, Corey Taylor, followed similar reasoning. For him, AI is just an accommodating evolution of other tools that correct out-of-tune voices or bad performances.
“To be honest, I don’t care about any of this. I don’t know what people are trying to prove. Are they trying to prove that computers can do things as well as people? Because if so, then what’s the point? an even worse example of technology replacing talent than I’ve been complaining about for years with Pro Tools, tuning and using the same sounds. And people keep saying, ‘oh, isn’t that cool?’. No, it’s not cool. You are crazy?”
Another great contemporary heavy metal vocalist to demonstrate his opinion on artificial intelligence is M. Shadows. The frontman of Avenged Sevenfoldhowever, completely disagrees with Taylor and says he would even be happy to give up his voice so that technology can create music and performances from it.
Outside of the heavy sound, the alternative idol Nick Cave demonstrated a position similar to that of Taylor. For him, AI has nothing to do with art, as composing music is a deeply human act.
Guitarist of queen and science enthusiast — not for nothing, PhD in astrophysics —, Brian May I told Guitar player which has a series of concerns around the topic.
“We won’t know what the path forward is. We will not know what was created by AI and what was created by humans. Everything will be very confusing. I think we can look at 2023 as the last year that humans truly dominated the music scene. […] The potential for artificial intelligence to cause harm is, of course, enormous. Not just in music, because no one dies in music, but people can die if AI gets involved in politics and global domination of nations.”
Source: Rollingstone
Earl Johnson is a music writer at Gossipify, known for his in-depth analysis and unique perspective on the industry. A graduate of USC with a degree in Music, he brings years of experience and passion to his writing. He covers the latest releases and trends, always on the lookout for the next big thing in music.
