More than 200 musical artists, including famous names such as Billie Eilish, Katy Perry and Nicki Minaj, signed a letter calling for the protection of artists’ rights against the misuse of artificial intelligence. So why?
The music world has always been open to innovation and benefited from the blessings of technology. When we first watched the world’s first virtual music group, Gorillaz, in the 2000s, we couldn’t help but be excited. Now things have changed a little more. There is almost nothing left untouched by artificial intelligence. For example, The Beatles made a new song 45 years later, thanks to artificial intelligence tools that made John Lennon’s voice reusable. The song also used parts recorded by surviving members Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr, as well as the late George Harrison. Stage shows are also more spectacular thanks to artificial intelligence. The visuals and lights used in concerts are increasing in dimension. However, there are also developments in artificial intelligence applications that the music industry is worried about.
In April last year, the artificial intelligence tool that imitated the voices of The Weeknd and Drake and allowed the duo to create a song called “Heart On My Sleeve” made a lot of noise. This song, created by a user on TikTok, was published on platforms such as Spotify, Apple Music and YouTube for a while, but the song was removed from the broadcast by Universal Music, which represents both artists, due to copyright law violation. (At least from official music platforms.)
ARTISTS SAY “ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE CANNOT REPLACE HUMANS”
The issue of producing songs with artificial intelligence seems to be in the gray area for now. There is no official sanction on this issue yet. But artists and their representatives think it is important to take action now. More than 200 musical artists, including names such as Billie Eilish, Katy Perry and Nicki Minaj; signed an open letter to artificial intelligence developers, technology companies and digital platforms, calling for the protection of artists’ rights against the “predatory” use of artificial intelligence.
In this letter, the artists say, “We call on our technology and digital partners to work with us. “Let’s take action to make the music industry a responsible market, to protect the quality of music and to ensure that artificial intelligence does not replace humans,” he said. Signatories include many artists and groups such as Elvis Costello, Norah Jones, Nicki Minaj, Camila Cabello, Kacey Musgraves, Jon Batiste, Pearl Jam, Sam Smith. This letter was one of the biggest collective actions the music industry has ever taken to defend themselves and other artists in today’s climate.
