Billie Eilish, Nicki Minaj, Stevie Wonder, Dozens More Call on AI Developers to Respect Artists’ Rights

variety.com:

Jem Aswad Executive Editor, Music Billie Eilish, Nicki Minaj, Stevie Wonder, Pearl Jam, Kacey Musgraves, Camila Cabello and more than 200 other artists have joined with the Artist Rights Alliance non-profit – an artist-led education and advocacy organization – to issue an open letter supported by more than 200 artists calling on “AI developers, technology companies, platforms, and digital music services to cease the use of artificial intelligence (AI) to infringe upon and devalue the rights of human artists.” A full list of signatories appears below.

While AI-related threats such as deepfakes and voice cloning continue to attract significant (and legal) scrutiny, the letter also highlights two related trends: the use of musical works by AI developers without permission to train and produce AI “copycats,” and the use of AI “sound” to dilute royalty obligations. “Working musicians are already struggling to make ends meet in the streaming world, and now they have the added burden of trying to compete with a deluge of AI-generated noise,” explains Jen Jacobsen, Executive Director of the ARA. “The unethical use of generative AI to replace human artists will devalue the entire music ecosystem—for artists and fans alike.” The letter, the full text of which appears below, states that “We must protect against the predatory use of AI to steal professional artists’ voices and likenesses, violate creators’ rights, and destroy the music ecosystem.