Over 200 Artists, Including Billie Eilish And Katie Perry, Demand AI Respect For Music Rights

Over 200 prominent musicians, including Billie Eilish, Katy Perry, Smokey Robinson and others, united to issue an open letter to artificial intelligence (AI) developers, tech companies and digital platforms.

According to Axios, the letter demanded an end to the utilization of AI in ways that infringe upon and devalue the rights of human artists, marking a significant collective stance by the music industry in the AI age.

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This collective action underscored the growing concern among artists over the impact of AI on their creative rights and earnings.

The letter specifically targeted the practices of replicating artists’ voices, using their works to train AI models without fair compensation, and the potential dilution of royalty pools essential for artist remuneration.

Jen Jacobsen, executive director at The Artist Rights Alliance (ARA) stated: “We’re kind of calling on our technology and digital partners to work with us to make this a responsible marketplace, and to keep the quality of the music sound, and not to replace human artists.”

The signatories, a diverse group spanning various musical genres, also included Elvis Costello, Norah Jones, Nicki Minaj and many more, are advocating for a pledge from AI entities.

They seek a commitment that AI will not be used to undermine human creativity or deny artists fair compensation. The letter acknowledged the potential of AI to foster human creativity when used responsibly but warned against its predatory use that threatens to “sabotage creativity and undermine artists, songwriters, musicians and rights holders.”

While the music industry began to support legislative measures to protect creative works from AI copyright issues, this letter represented a direct appeal to the tech sector.

Previous efforts, such as the Human Artistry Campaign’s push for The No AI FRAUD Act and the support for the Elvis Act in Tennessee, have primarily targeted legislatures.

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