Billie Eilish, Robert Smith and more sign open letter warning against “predatory” use of AI in music

nme.com:

Billie Eilish, Robert Smith, Stevie Wonder and Nicki Minaj are just a handful of artists who have signed an open letter warning against the “predatory” use of artificial intelligence (AI) in music.Yesterday (April 2), non-profit organization Artist Rights Alliance issued an open letter titled ‘Stop devaluing music’ about the rise of AI in music, signed by over 200 prominent names in the music industry.

Read the full letter here.Through the letter, the artist-run nonprofit organization asks that developers, technology companies, and platforms and digital music services “pledge that they will not develop or deploy AI music-generation technology, content, or tools that undermine or replace the human artistry of songwriters and artists or deny us fair compensation for our work.”The letter states: “Make no mistake: we believe that, when used responsibly, AI has enormous potential to advance human creativity and in a manner that enables the development and growth of new and exciting experiences for music fans everywhere.”“Unfortunately, some platforms and developers are employing AI to sabotage creativity and undermine artists, songwriters, musicians and rightsholders.

When used irresponsibly, AI poses enormous threats to our ability to protect our privacy, our identities, our music and our livelihoods.”The open letter continues: “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.