They feel threatened by AI: In an open letter, 13,500 artists object to training on their hits.
Artificial intelligence has an insatiable hunger. In an open letter of protest, 13,500 international artists are now defending themselves against the appropriation of their works by AI. They want to prevent their music, texts and images from serving as training fodder for the AI. Also ABBA mastermind Björn Ulvaeus (79), The Cure singer Robert Smith (65) and actress Julianne Moore (63).
“Dancing Queen” not AI fodder
Artificial intelligence can only develop its full power because it draws on what already exists. AI applications that generate music, images or texts benefit from the ingenuity of human geniuses like ABBA icon Björn Ulvaeus. Together with his colleague Benny Andersson (77), he created countless hits for eternity between 1972 and 1982. And it is likely to insult his honor that all sorts of AI applications are fed with his masterpieces à la “Waterloo” and “Dancing Queen”. Their sole purpose: to study catchy texts and sound sequences and spit them out profitably as audio imitations.
“Threat to people behind the works”
His colleagues Robert Smith and Thom Yorke (56), the charismatic singers of the bands The Cure and Radiohead, are in a similar situation to Ulvaeus. She and 13,500 other artists wrote a letter of protest against “the unlicensed use of creative works to train generative AI.” It is “a major, unjust threat to the livelihood of the people behind these works.” Artists from the acting and literary fields also signed the open letter. In addition to Julianne Moore, Hollywood star Kevin Bacon (66) and Nobel Prize winner Kazuo Ishiguro (69) also support the cause of the protest.
Against musical works as “training data”
The initiator of the protest letter is said to be the 37-year-old British composer Ed Newton-Rex. Newton-Rex once worked in a leading position at profit-oriented AI companies. He is now a professor at Stanford and CEO of Fairly Trained, a company that certifies AI companies for their “fair handling of their training data.” Among other things, Newton-Rex is bothered by the trivializing term “training data”. With it, works created by humans would be “dehumanized”. Well-known companies in the book and music industry also support the open letter. In the past, Sony Music, Universal Music Group and Warner Music Group have sued providers of AI music generators such as Suno and Udio. And as always, in addition to preserving the musician’s honor, it’s also about a lot of “money, money, money”.
Source: Stern
I am an author and journalist who has worked in the entertainment industry for over a decade. I currently work as a news editor at a major news website, and my focus is on covering the latest trends in entertainment. I also write occasional pieces for other outlets, and have authored two books about the entertainment industry.
